Patches Make the Fabric Stronger: An Hhr fanfic
by zoencomp
Summary: HHR Hr turn-round. Trio returns to Hogwarts for their 6th year and face many changes ahead. EX: new character, screeching birthday hats, flying accidents, a visit to Hermione's house, a prom, reckless party & Voldemort's defeat. FULL SUMMARY INSIDE
1. 1: Birthday Hats and Time Zones

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

Hey everyone! This is Zoe. I just want to say thanks for coming to read the fan fic. Hopefully you'll review and love it! (But of course, if you have any suggestions, please present them as well.)

I want to say thanks to my sister, Jessica, the editor of this Fan Fic. Thank you Jess; for giving me inspiration and putting some life into the dead spots of the FF. You rock! Jess actually has a note for all of you, that complete summary mentioned:

Jess says:

As I promised: **THE COMPLETE SUMMARY**

When the trio returns to Hogwarts for their 6th year, they face many changes ahead of them. These obstacles include screeching birthday hats, Quiddich Tryouts, flying accidents, a visit to Hermione's house, a Muggle Prom, and Ron joining a band because, well... he has his own reasons, (you'll see). Then there's new romances for every trio member and a new student from New York City who, like it or not, makes life even more complicated. And, not to mention an attempt at murder and the climatic defeat of Voldemort...

This FF will be H/Hr, as in the title, but their relationship doesn't start out at the beginning. Naturally, they don't jump right in, and there ARE some complications involving other students that slow everything down. But, whatever you may be thinking, THE NEW GIRL DOES NOT GO OUT WITH HARRY! (I'll say that now, before you blame Zoe for creating a Mary Sue, which she is most definitely NOT)

**Rated PG13** for language, moments of violence, blood, severe peril and, some thematic elements

OK. I hope that made you want to read the story. If you decide to continue, thank you! We love any readers and hope you enjoy it!

Jess

And with no further ado, I am pleased to present,

Patches Make the Fabric Stronger; An Hhr Fan Fiction 

**Chapter 1: Birthday Hats and Time Zones**

It was unusually cold for an early August morning in Little Whinging. Not a soul stirred as a thick mist crawled along the dark streets. It moved quickly, slithering quietly, and it seemed to strangle its victims as it wrapped itself around lampposts and trees. It squeezed little bits of life into forgotten corners, leaving them to shiver and hide as they waited for sunrise. The only sound was the creaking of a rusty swing in the play-park off Magnolia Crescent.

The swing was occupied by a raven-haired boy of sixteen. His unruly, dark hair hid a thin, lightning bolt scar on the forehead of his skinny, tanned face. From behind round glasses that were beginning to fog up from the thick mist, Harry Potter's intense green eyes stared, brooding, at the mulched ground. His hands propped his chin up over his knees, and the boy dragged the toes of his trainers through the damp earth as he swayed slowly back and forth. A few feet to his left lay a large travel trunk, as well as a slightly dented, but empty bird-cage. Off in the distance the cage's usual inhabitant pecked at the damp ground in search of some tidbit or treat that might have burrowed into the park soil. Three more owls were scattered throughout the area, executing the same search of food as the first.

Harry cursed himself for being so stupid. He should have known that something like this would have happen. Stupid owls. Stupid- _bloody owls_! He picked up a woodchip and flung it as hard as possible at Pigwidgeon, the closest of the birds. Harry missed by several feet but Pig gave a frightened squeak and took flight anyway.

_Stupid Ron._ Harry kicked at the damp ground, spewing dirt and woodchips in all directions. Hermione would have known better. It was probably Ron's idea. Or the twins. It was probably one of their horrible joke shop ideas. Harry should have never given them all that money.

He remembered the look on his uncle's face perfectly: Purple flesh, bulging eyes, that big, thick, spitting tongue. Harry had found the owls funny at first. All decked out in their little birthday hats. They'd looked like five-year-olds at a birthday party. Then he'd tried to take the hats off and the stupid, stupid things had started their stupid, stupid rendition of 'Happy Birthday'. And then his uncle had come into the room and kicked him out. "Never come back here again!" That's what he'd said. "I told you; anything unusual, unnatural or out of ordinary, you'd be out."

Harry remembered everything perfectly. After all, all this had happened less than an hour ago. He could still remember the loud clanging emitted when Uncle Vernon had thrown Hedwig's owl cage down the front steps after his nephew, as well as the quick breeze of the door of number four slamming in his face. Stupid Twins. Stupid, stupid birthday hats. Stupid Uncle Vernon.

Harry pressed his cheek against the rusty chain of the swing. He closed his eyes and slowly let all the air in his lungs. Maybe he should go talk to Mrs. Figg. Mrs. Figgy. Harry laughed at his own dumb joke. The boy sighed heavily and pulled himself up by way of the rusty chains. He gathered up his things in a somewhat lazy manor and called for the four birds to follow him out of the play-park.

Harry walked the way to Mrs. Figg's house in a dazed fashion, pulling his tired feet along the sidewalk. A strange procession of owls followed him, and before long Harry reached Mrs. Figg's home; Number 24, Privet Drive. It was large, tan and slightly grotesque looking, just like the building to the left, as well as the house to the right and the one after that, and all the others that followed. The only difference between her house and the others was the large cat flap in the front door, and the brown, cat patterned curtains hanging in the windows. Harry grimaced and rang the doorbell.

……………………………

Three thousand miles away, on a different continent, and in a different time zone, a digital clock blinked "11:32 PM." Alexis Garcia, owner of the digital clock and occupant of the different continent, pushed the heavy front door of the apartment closed and twisted the lock. She turned her back to the door and slid along the roughly painted wood until she hit the cold linoleum floor. The girl didn't bother to smooth her black dress as it caught along the chipping green paint of the door behind her. It didn't matter anyway. The dress had been her sister's and had never fit either of them right to begin with, having been bought second hand at some flee market.

It was July 31st, a cool, summer night in New York City and Alexis had just come home from a party. Sitting on the floor and staring into the dark depths of the apartment, she recapped the night's events.

Monica had invited her to a local address and told her that she and lots of other people would be there. But, whatever Monica had said, she had been wrong. There definitely had been other people there. There had also been lots of music, dancing, probably some drinks, but no Monica. Alexis had walked through the whole house looking for her best friend, but couldn't find her anywhere. Then, after asking around, she realized Monica had been there, but only for about ten minutes before she decided to split and go off with some guy.

Feeling hurt and slightly disappointed, Alexis had then taken a muggle taxicab home, where she was now. The girl bent down and took off her heels, which had been killing her feet all night. Sighing, she set the shoes on the cold floor next to her and ran her hands through her shoulder-length layered brown hair with bright, peachy-orange streaks. Her lids were heavy over gray-brown eyes. How many times had Monica done this to her?

Alexis's thoughts were interrupted by sounds coming from across the flat. Her American Eskimo Dog, Nieve, came bounding towards her and the girl let the miniature husky lick her fingers.

"How are you tonight?" Alexis said softly, picking up the dog and hugging it to her chest as she stood up and walked into the small, but livable kitchen. Nieve wined when Alexis got near enough to her food bowl and she jumped out of the girl's arms to lap at the water provided. Alexis pulled open the door of the refrigerator and surveyed its rather sparse contents.

"Milk, soda, grape jelly-" she murmured to herself. "Leftover pizza, canary cream- yesterday's mail."

Alexis sighed and removed both the milk and the day-old post, leafing through the latter, but replacing it next to the jelly when she accumulated that there wasn't anything for her. After taking several gulps from the carton of milk, she returned it to the fridge and walked over to the couch, where her older sister, as well as legal guardian, lay asleep. After watching her sister for several long moments, Alexis bent down and kissed the girl on the forehead.

"Good night Steph," she whispered, and patted her leg for Nieve as she walked to her bedroom. She turned on the light and looked out her only window into an alleyway. It was dark and gloomy. Alexis pulled on the cord to make the shade go down and cover the window. She could still hear the loud muggle streets below, a sound she had become very accustomed to in the last few months. Feeling depressed, Alexis decided she'd hit the hay, and after changing into her pajamas, she fell asleep on her mattress without even pulling the covers over herself. Nieve curled up in a ball at the foot of the bed. This was an average day in the life of Alexis Garica.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** So, that's the first chapter. I hope that you liked it. You might find the 'Alexis' segment a bit confusing as of now, but if you keep reading it'll all make sense a bit later. Ninety-nine percent of the story is from Harry's point of view, but once in a while I stick in something from another character, since Harry isn't present. Just keep reading, you'll get it during the next chapter.

And not to mention, I LOOOOVVVEEEE reviews. Hehe. Keep reading! And to Jess: Thanks for MAJORLY helping me with the dead spots in this chapter. If you want to see the first version of this chapter, please see _The_ _Chrionicles of Harry and Hermione_, another story on this username by Jessie, that is not likely to be continued but is still worth the read! Bye for now!


	2. 2: Headquarters

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone! We (Jess and I) are glad that you made it past the first chapter! I (Zoe) love reading your reviews and they can definitely act as encouragement and make me post faster. (Hint) Happy reading!

**Chapter 2: Headquarters**

Almost five AM, back in Europe, Harry Potter fell from the fireplace at Number 12, Grimmauld Place, in London. The four owls twittered madly as they flew quickly from the flu port, and their disgusted opinions of the quick ride from Privet drive were obvious. Harry tried to smile at the stunned members of The Order as he pushed himself up and adjusted his glasses. Harry felt himself flush awkwardly as he pulled his trunk and other things onto the threshold, and was almost relieved when the silence was broken by a warm shriek of welcome coming from Mrs. Weasley's direction.

"Harry, dear!"

"Hullo," Harry said, smiling as Ron's mother enveloped him in a tight hug.

"We weren't expectin' you 'Arry." Harry looked over Mrs. Weasley's shoulder to see Hagrid, his hair bushier than ever, sitting at the table over a large plate of potatoes and steak next to Remus Lupin.

"They kicked me out," said Harry, somewhat bluntly. "The Dursleys- Vernon said never to come back again."

There was a shocked silence in which even the large clock seemed to stop ticking. From next to Hagrid, Lupin got calmly out of his chair.

"I'll go notify the ministry- have someone go talk to these _muggles_."

"Mrs. Figg is talking to them right now. She went right after I left from her house."

"Still, she's a squib. It won't take even them long to realize that. She needs backup. I'll wake Tonks and Moody. We'll go in five minutes." He walked quickly from the room.

Mrs. Weasley pulled Harry back into a hug.

"It's going to be ok dear. Why don't you go upstairs? There's a bed ready next to Ron. Try not to wake him though, sweetie."

………………………

Harry woke far into the next day. The sun was shining through the bedroom window and he could hear pigeons clucking outside on the muggle street. Harry guessed that it was almost noon. Sliding his glasses over his nose, he stood up and felt the blood rush to his head. Feeling slightly dizzy, Harry waited for his vision to clear, then stretched.

Just as he was about to leave the room, someone else rushed in.

"Ron!" Exclaimed Harry.

Ron grinned from ear to ear.

"Harry! Mum said you arrived early this morning. I've been up for hours. She wouldn't let me wake you."

Harry smiled as he sat back down on his bed. Ron took the bed opposite.

"It's so good to be back," Harry said.

"I know," replied his friend. "This house is actually pretty cool now that we cleaned it up a bit. Still got some problems though. More doxies have hatched in the drawing room drapes."

Harry groaned.

"Hey! Did you open your presents, mate?"

"Oh, no, I didn't. But I can do that now I guess."

Harry got up and walked to his trunk. "The owls gave me quite a bit of a surprise; and my Uncle too, especially since they came at four AM." Harry grinned as he opened his trunk, when they were suddenly hit with another wave of Happy Birthday;

"_Happy Birthday dear Har-ry,_

_Happy Birthday to you-oo!_

_And man-ny more!"_

Ron groaned. "That's what they put on the owls! That's not why you got kicked out though was it?"

"Fred and George did this? You didn't know what?"

"Shut the trunk, Harry." Ron looked slightly mortified as the hats began singing the song all over again. Harry obliged his friend's wishes, grabbing the presents before he snapped the trunk shut.

"So you didn't know- about anything?"

Ron looked somewhat guiltily at his feet. "Well- I didn't know exactly what they were going to do, Harry. You have to understand. They- they didn't want me to see their new inventions. But I knew that they were _doing_ something. They just sent me out of the room and let the owls fly off without me." Ron grinned. "But- well- if it wasn't the hats- then, why _are_ you here?"

"Um, well- I never said that it wasn't because of the hats-" It was Harry's turn to look guilty.

"No way!" Ron's eyes were the size of saucers as he stared at Harry. "Mum is going to kill them once she finds out. Her grudge against them for starting the joke shop was sort of over when they bought the family a new car at the beginning of summer vacation. It's a mini van. Could have gotten something sportier but I guess it is the only model we can fit the whole family in."

Harry gave a weak halfhearted smile. "Yeah, it's cool that they got your parents a car though." He returned to the bed with the three packages, sitting next to Ron. You couldn't hear the hats anymore; he was glad. Opening Ron's present first, he found it to be the usual pies from Mrs. Weasley, along with several more hats from the twins (_Harry, these are our newest creation. You're the first to own one!)_ And…

"Ron! Wow! This candy is going to last all year long!" Ron had given him a box stuffed full with Ice Mice, Pepper Imps, Chocolate Frogs, Drouple's Best Blowing Gum and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Grinning hugely, Harry ripped open the bag of chocolate frogs and they gorged themselves while opening the package from Hagrid.

The box with Hagrid's gift contained two almost identical items that looked very much like furry, dead animals. The box also held a note written in Hagrid's untidy scrawl.

These are made from the same stuff as my beaver skin coat. I hope you like them, Harry. I thought that you might want something to keep your hands warm next winter.

"I get it!" Ron finally said after a few moments confusion. "They're gloves!"

Next Harry opened Hermione's letter.

_Dear Harry,_

_How has your summer been? Mine has been terrific so far. My family spent the first week scuba diving in Bonaire, an island off Venezuela. I took a course for the first 4 days, and then I was able to go with my parents and a guide. The fish were beautiful. It was very fun except for the one time I couldn't see the others and thought I was lost. I panicked then, and I made a fool out of myself, but hopefully the fish that I kicked during my search wasn't hurt too badly._

_Ron has written me and asked me to come to Headquarters but I don't know when I'm going to go yet- I said I'd come once you arrived so that we could all be together. So, when are you going?_

_Ron also wrote to me to send my owl to him first, apparently Fred and George want to do some thing to them. Ron said that it would make you laugh. I wonder if it did. You can tell me when I see you next. I hope they didn't do anything too rash or stupid. I miss you tons._

_Can't wait to see you again,_

_Hermione_

_PS: If you are already with Ron, tell him that I said 'hello' and that I miss him as well._

Ron asked to read the letter and Harry handed it over, beginning to unwrap the present.

"Oh wow," Harry whispered. "Look, she's gotten me a camera." Inside the wrapping paper was a black and silver camera with a large lens and flash. It looked like it had cost a lot of money. There was also a note.

_Harry- I thought you might like a camera. It's an ordinary muggle one, but I've also included the recipe for a special potion that will make the pictures move. The directions are on the other sheet of paper._

"I thought it was a book, she always gives books, I guess she really outdid herself this time though. She's really something, Hermione is," said Ron after he had finished reading the note over Harry's shoulder.

"Yeah," replied Harry, smiling and examining the camera. "I've always wanted one of these. Dudley has about five but I'm never aloud near any of them." Just then, Ron's younger sister Ginny walked into the room.

"Hi Harry," she said to him, then, addressing Ron as well, she continued. "Mum wants everyone to come down for lunch."

The two boys got up quickly. Five minutes later they came into the kitchen, all three of them wearing Birthday hats. For some reason, the hats had stopped singing. The twins yelped with joy when they came in wearing the hats. Grabbing one from each Harry and Ron, who had each been wearing two, they pulled the elastics over their heads. Mrs. Weasley however, did not notice the hats until they had all been seated at the table.

"Take those of at once! No hats at the table." Ron was the only one who complained.

"But Mum, we're celebrating Harry's birthday!"

"I said- take them _off_!"

Grumpily, Harry, Ginny and Ron took off their hats. Fred and George didn't seem to mind at all though. They removed theirs without complaint. All five of them began to smile though, as the hats began another large and out-of-tune chorus of 'Happy Birthday Harry.'

"What on earth!" Mrs. Weasley was confused.

"They only sing when they aren't on a head." George explained.

"We keep them on mannequins at the shop," said Fred. Even Mrs. Weasley laughed at this.

"Fine! Put them on then! Just make them stop making that dreadful noise!"

Gleefully, all five returned the hats to their heads, where they stopped singing immediately. George, who was sitting next to Harry, began to explain their newest product.

"We needed something different, now that the skiving snack boxes are out." He said. "Most people think that Birthday hats look stupid, or are unacceptable, like Mum, but obviously, they make the party much more fun. So, now since they sing something really annoying if you don't wear them, you have to wear them! We put a little extra enchantments on yours though, so they would write."

"Oy Ron!" Fred gestured to his brother, who was sitting across the table. "Haven't been practicing lately, have you?"

Ron swallowed a mouthful of string beans and took a sip of his water. Harry looked confused.

"No." Ron grimaced, his expression slightly guilty.

"Practice what?" But George pushed Harry's question aside before Ron could answer.

"Ron! You said you'd practice. Fred and I spent money on that set and we didn't plan for it to sit around in the case for months at a time!"

"Mum; can you make them stop?"

"They have a perfectly good point Ron. A collapsible drum set is a big investment of time and money, and you said you'd make use of it. Making use of it means practicing."

"_A collapsible drum set_?" Harry felt like he was being left in the dark.

"Fred and I said that we'd buy him something as a late birthday present since business at the shop has been going so well. He's played it about three times since June and we spent so much getting him one that shrunk enough to put in his trunk."

"That isn't true! I've practiced at least four times," Ron protested, and then continued. "Anyway, I practiced in my room, so there isn't any way for you to know when I play!"

"Everyone could hear you practicing Ron; it was deafening. We almost died those few times."

"Then I'll never play again ok, if I'm that horrible."

"See George, I told you that this was a bad idea. And Ron, why on earth did you want to have a drum set anyway? Why not a guitar? At first it seemed cool, but now- well- gentle twanging would be much better."

"Ron wanted to be more intellectual." Ginny explained to Harry, giggling. "He thought that playing an instrument would make the girls like him."

"Well, it's true. Victor Krum plays the piano!" Ron looked around the table defiantly. When he saw everyone's surprised expressions, he began listing more people. "And- and- I bet Cedric Diggory played something, and you play the piano too Ginny. Cedric got Cho, and Krum got Hermione. You've had multiple boyfriends already Ginny. You're going out with Dean now, and just to mention it, he's been playing guitar for five years. It just feels stupid to be the only person who doesn't have a bloody girlfriend!"

"Oh Ronnie, this isn't what your life has turned into, is it? The main priority at this point in your life is not girls: it's grades. You shouldn't worry about things like that till you've finished school." Mrs. Weasley was looking concerned.

"It _is_ true honey," Ron's father joined the conversation. "I felt like I'd never have a chance with you. Everyone you fell for played an instrument and I couldn't afford it. Michael played the bagpipes, and Edward played the violin, and of course there was that one bloke who wouldn't part with his harmonica. They made me feel so intimidated."

"Oh honey-"

"Harry and Cho went out last year and Harry doesn't play anything." Ginny tried to support Ron, even though she had started up the topic.

"That's true." Harry found his voice. "And you should hear me sing."

"Well, Ron; since having a girl depends on musical talent, and you don't want to practice I guess you'll never have a girlfriend."

"Fine! I'll go practice already!" Ron tore off his birthday hat and slammed it down on his half empty plate. He managed to leave the room just before it began singing again.

George snapped the elastic over his own head to make the hat stop its horrid chanting, and the whole family sat in a suspended silence until they heard the horrible banging of Ron's drums overhead. Then Mrs. Weasley said something over the din.

"Well, grades should be his target right now. I never knew- well, I just never knew that he cared so much about..."

Harry looked over towards Ginny as Mrs. Weasley's voice trailed off and she got up to refill everyone's plates. Harry grinned. There was a lot that Mrs. Weasley didn't know.

…………………………

Meanwhile over the ocean, Alexis looked out the window at the clouds. She was onboard a plane on her way to England. Her sister had gotten an offer in a famous hair studio. This job paid much more then the ones she had in New York. Alexis hoped life would be easier living in London. Her sister would work in Muggle London and Alexis would be going to a different Witchcraft school called Hogwarts. She was excited (boys with accents! Yay!) and there was only three weeks until the beginning of term. Though there were many people at her school in New York, they had always lived near by.

The school had been a day school; this year she would for the first time be going to a boarding school. She looked down at the pamphlet in he lap. There were many cool things about Hogwarts that were different from her old school. First of all, they were aloud to have their own owls at school. Though she didn't have one, it would be interesting to see the birds bringing the mail every morning. She wanted to bring Nieve with her for company but the pamphlet said that only toads, owls and cats were aloud. She would just have to smuggle her dog in.

…………………………

At Headquarters, back in London, Harry had finished his meal and excused himself from the table with great speed, taking the steps three at a time towards Ron's horrible noise.

"That sounds pretty good." He raised his voice over the din as he closed the bedroom door behind him and took a seat on the bed, trying hard not to wince. Ron ended his routine with several hard clashes on the cymbals.

"I'm no good. I'll never be any good."

"No Ron, that was-"

"You know it stunk to bloody Hell, Harry. So don't lie."

"You'll get better. Hermione used to tell me that practice makes perfect when I was working for the third task. She would push me to try it over and over again and when I finally got it there was a big celebration. Well, a celebration in my head, she just had me start something new."

"Don't mention Hermione. I don't want to hear her name right now."

Harry looked at the floor, confused. At that moment Ginny popped her head in.

"So, Harry, I heard Hermione gave you a camera. Can I see?"

…………………………

The next few weeks were very enjoyable for Harry. Mrs. Weasley's good cooking was nothing like the food he received when with the Dursleys, and he treasured every bite. Harry, Ron and Ginny had fun with Harry's new camera, taking pictures of everything, including Kreecher (an obsessive house-elf,) and developing them in the dark closet in one of the unused bedrooms. Then they would place the pictures all over the house, no matter who or what they contained. The only time that was not fun for Harry was when Mrs. Weasley discovered why Harry no longer lived with his aunt and uncle.

It happened one afternoon, towards the end of the week, when Harry, Ron, and Ginny were just about to go upstairs to develop the film in their newly acquired dark room. Harry had one foot out the kitchen door and the other two were already sneaking past the large portrait of Mrs. Black, the late Sirius Black's mother. Hagrid, Tonks and Mrs. Weasley were all in the kitchen behind him.

"Harry dear," said Mrs. Wealsey. "Can I discuss something with you?"

"Uh... Ok." Harry removed his foot from outside and returned to the kitchen table.

"The Dursleys complained that you did magic the one morning before you came here. That's why they threw you out. Is that true?"

Harry stared at her for a moment; he had been thinking that she would talk to him about Sirius, his godfather who had died recently or going back to school, least of all this.

"Uhhh…" Harry didn't know how to begin. "I didn't do any magic, at least I don't think so."

"Then what was it dear?"

"I-I guess that the owls made a sort of racket when they came in, they were wearing, um, lots of decorations." Mrs. Weasley squinted at him suspiciously but Harry continued before she could say anything. "But I made a lot of noise going downstairs from getting a drink of water too." Harry stared at the floor.

"Do you mean to day that the owls were wearing birthday hats, and that they began singing?"

Harry jumped up. "I have to go to the bathroom," he lied. "Sorry." He almost ran from the room. Instead of going to the small bathroom next door to the kitchen he tiptoed past Mrs. Black's curtained portrait, as not to wake it, and scrambled up to the dark room where Ron and Ginny were already hanging pictures on a clothesline.

"Harry! We were just about to go get you." Said Ginny, waving a gloved hand at him. "Where have you been?"

Harry sighed and walked over to look at the pictures on the line.

"Your mother just questioned me about why I'm not at the Dursley's right now. I think she got it that the owls were wearing birthday hats. I didn't tell her anything though. I just said I made a racket coming upstairs from a drink of water in the kitchen and that the birds were kind of loud."

Ron stared at Harry. Ginny looked down at the picture she was developing in a potion.

"Fred and George are in for it." She sighed. "Not like it's your fault though. They sent them."

As Ginny said, Fred and George were definitely in for it. Just at that moment they heard Mrs. Weasley's shouts coming from the room the twins shared.

"I CANT BELIEVE YOU! YOU PUT HARRY IN SEVERE DANGER! HE COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED. NO ONE KNOWS WHERE YOU-KNOW-WHO IS RIGHT NOW. HE COULD HAVE SHOWED UP THE MOMENT THAT HARRY LEFT THE HOUSE! YOU SHOULD HAVE USED YOUR BRAINS BEFORE YOU SENT HIM THOSE STUPID HATS AT TWO A.M. IN THE MORNING!"

Ron winced. "Don't worry Harry, they won't hold it against you. No one will remember in a week."

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** So, that's all for now, though I'll post in a bit. Hope you liked it and that the 'Alexis' part of this story is becoming a bit clearer! Happy reading! (Reviews are awesome!) Hint. Hint.


	3. 3: Overhearing

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Here it is… Chapter 3!! A lot happens in this chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as zoe liked writing it! Remember to review!

Jess

**Chapter 3: Overhearing**

Ron was partly right. Fred and George wouldn't talk to and seemed to be avoiding Harry for the next three days. But it was easier for Harry to forget the events of the day when Hermione arrived the night of the argument.

She had great stories about her trip to Bonaire and she stayed up late into the night telling Harry, Ron and Ginny about the vacation. Ron found it highly amusing when she told them about this one clerk at the hotel, who cleaned the pool. Apparently all the teenage girls in the hotel would pick just the times of his shift to go shun bathe on the terrace. Hermione giggled when she told them his name. "Jordan, such a great name." She sighed and continued to tell them about the snorkeling and scuba diving.

Fred and George had forgiven Harry and all the things Mrs. Weasley had said after the third day of Hermione's stay and joined the quartet in late night stories. They talked about all the new things they had invented for their joke shop and how they had hired several new employees to run it ("they aren't as good as we are at selling things but we like to have some free time.")

By the time their school letters came the next week they had had almost run out of adventures to talk about but their O.W.L. scores (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) gave them new things to consider. On an early Monday morning during breakfast Errol, a large gray owl, flew through the open kitchen window while the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione were eating breakfast. He collapsed on the kitchen table and slid its whole length before coming to a standstill in front of Ginny who gave a cry of excitement. "Look! Our school letters are here!" When she said this Hermione gave forth a loud shriek and jumped up to grab hers.

"Harry, Ron," she almost shouted, "Our O.W.L. scores!" Jumping forward as well, Harry and Ron grabbed their letters and began shredding the envelopes while Hermione stared at her open mouthed at her sheet of results.

"What," said Ron, "Did you average exceeding expectations? That's my dream."

Hermione, now smiling replied, "I passed everything!" She obviously couldn't contain her excitement. She grabbed Ginny by the hands began dancing around in circles with her, both of them now laughing.

Grinning to himself, Harry looked down at his own scores. The paper was as follows:

O.W.L. Test Results

Name; Potter, Harry J.House: Gryffindor

Possible Passing scores: O- Outstanding, E- Exceeding Expectations, A-Acceptable.

Possible Failing scores: P- Poor, D- Dreadful, T- Troll

Charms Theory: A

Charms Practical: E

Owl: Yes

Transfiguration Theory: O

Transfiguration Practical: E

Owl: Yes

Herbology Theory: A

Herbology Practical: E

Owl: Yes

Defense Against the Dark Arts Theory: O

Defense Against the Dark Arts Practical: O H

Owl: Honors

Potions Theory: O

Potions Practical: E

Owl: Yes

Divination Theory: P

Divination Practical: D

Owl: No

Care of Magical Creatures Theory: O H

Care of Magical Creatures Practical: O H

Owl: High Honors

Astronomy Theory: A

Astronomy Practical: A

Owl: Yes

History of Magic (Theory Only): P

Owl: No

Dear Mr. H. Potter,

Hogwarts is pleased to inform you that you have passed seven O.W.L. tests. You will be taking the following classes in your 6th year at Hogwarts; Astronomy, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms, Care of Magical Creatures and Potions. The staff congratulates you on your academic achievement and hope you enjoy the rest of your summer holiday!

Yours Sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Harry stared at his paper, finding his test scores hard to believe. He was surprised; he had passed everything he needed to become an Auror!

"Bloody hell." George said, reading over his shoulder. "You better watch it Harry, you've almost reached nerd level."

"Mind your tongue, George." Mrs. Weasley looked displeased. "What how did you score, Harry dear?" Harry let out his breath slowly.

"Well, I passed everything I needed to pass to become an Auror! Even Potions."

Hermione and Ginny stopped their dancing and raced over to Harry. Hermione threw her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "That's really good Harry!" She said after she let go of him, both of them now slightly pink. "That means we're in almost all of the same classes!" Grinning ecstatically, she turned to Ron. "What did you get?"

Ron looked up from his paper, having been silent for the past few minutes.

"I've gotten six O.W.L.s," he said, smiling weakly.

Her grin even bigger than before, Hermione left Harry to hug Ron. Harry clapped his friend on the back.

"Well done mate." He smiled enthusiastically but moved away as Mrs. Weasley raced over to almost decapitate Ron in a bear hug.

"Oh Ronnie! I'm so proud!" Tears were streaming down her face. It looked very odd to see Mrs. Weasley, who was quite short, standing next to her son, who had recently passed the six-foot mark on the wall at the Weasleys home in St. Catchpole. After Mrs. Wealsey was done squeezing her youngest son she turned to the twins who had each only gotten three O.W.L.s each. "See, these are model students." Then she buried her head in Ron's shoulder again till he forced her off, saying that his life was under threat.

As Mrs. Weasley withdrew herself from her son, Harry added to the room that he had made quiddtich captain, which brought more smiles from everyone and another squeak and hug from Hermione.

They all went back to breakfast, Ginny and Hermione chattering nonstop about the upcoming trip to Diagon Alley, when they would get their books and things for school. Harry was concentrating on his food, still trying to figure out how Snape had somehow left behind all the arguments he'd ever had with Harry's father and handed his least favorite student an 'O' on the potions theory exam. Then something that Mrs. Weasley said brought his attention back to the kitchen.

"Hermione dear, you'll need to get some more of that medication you take when we go to Diagon Alley, won't you?"

Silence enveloped the room as all the conversations halted abruptly. Harry looked up from his toast and bacon, laying down his fork next to his plate and focusing his eyes on Hermione.

"You take medicine? Why?" Ron asked with his mouth full.

"Swallow, Ron." Mrs. Weasley spoke, looking disgruntled.

"I was going to ask why, too." Harry announced, rubbing his aching head as Ron followed his mother's orders. "Are you sick?"

"I-I" Hermione looked down at her plate. "It's no big deal."

"That horrible death eater, whoever knocked her out last June, he's given her a pretty serious form of asthma." Mrs. Weasley dabbed her lips with a napkin and continued talking. "And 'Mione, sweetheart, don't say it isn't a big deal, you almost died!"

Hermione looked down at her hands, which she had folded in her lap.

"Asthma?" Ron looked confused. "You have to take a medicine?"

"She drinks a potion every morning," Mrs. Weasley said. "That's another reason children shouldn't get involved with the Order. It's a hard business. One well aimed spell and your life will never be the same again."

Hermione looked near tears at this. Harry caught Ron's eye and looked down at his plate. He knew very well that if it hadn't been for his doubts about Sirius, Hermione wouldn't have to take medicine.

The group ate quietly for several minutes, till Ron and the twins finally decided that they were done eating. They began the dishes and the rest of the family quickly followed suite, Harry pushing the last of his bacon into the trash, not feeling hungry anymore.

The attention was brought back to Ron when George asked to see his O.W.L. scores. The twins seemed highly impressed with Ron's six passing grades.

"Wow," Fred commented, "You even did good in Astonomy! We both got 'Dreadful' in that one, didn't we George?"

"I didn't pass potions though." Ron broke the group's enthusiasm grumpily. "That means I can't become an Auror. McGonagall made it really clear that you needed a good Potions score to even be considered for the job." This statement was met with several moments of silence as everyone soaked up the words. Mrs. Weasley, though looking a little downtrodden, tried to cheer her son up.

"Balderdash!" She said, "You can become an Auror without Potions. I bet lots of people have!" Seeing this didn't cheer Ron up much she tried to change the subject. "We have to celebrate! Tonight we'll have a party with lots of food, and we'll decorate! Now go upstairs, so I can get started." With this Mrs. Weasley hustled the three 6th years out of the room, telling them not to come back until she called.

It took about half an hour for Ron to cheer up. He made everyone in the house miserable as well by starting another horrible drum practice session in the room he shared with Harry. Hermione was considering a cheering charm when he finally stopped. She and Harry came back from their retreat to the drawing room, where they had tried to hide from the ear-bashing music. As they entered he exclaimed (to the relief of the other two) that he didn't really care that he wasn't taking Potions, because it _was _his least favorite class. He also added, grinning hugely, that they would now have to endure the endless hour and a half without him, which, in his mind, would make them even more miserable.

Hermione, Ginny, Ron and Harry spent the rest of the day 'till dinner in an upstairs parlor playing quiddtich. They persuaded Lupin to put a charm on the room for them, transfiguring it into an entire quidditch pitch. Though there now was no ceiling to the room, it still seemed to fit into the third story of the residence. Harry, who had received a ban from a temporary Hogwarts headmistress the previous year, enjoyed the few hours they spent on their brooms. Ginny, and Ron, who had been on the team the year before decided to practice their skills, (Ginny would be trying out for Chaser this year and she was aiming shots at the goal posts while Ron tried stop her.) While they were doing this, Harry was trying to help Hermione become a better flier. Hermione, who had never taken to quidditch because it was something that was impossible to learn out of a book, was using Fred's broom. Though she had been willing to try when the three others asked her to join them, she kept tumbling off her broom, even though it was only about five feet above the ground. By the time Mr. Weasley came to get them however, she had managed to fly around the entire pitch twice without falling and was practicing her shooting with Ginny and Ron while Harry chased the snitch.

As the four put away their brooms and went down to the party that Mrs. Weasley had prepared, they joked merrily about how Gryffindor would hopefully win the Inter House Quidditch Cup, like they had done the year before. When they entered the kitchen it was already crowded with people. Though, like the pitch upstairs, the room had been expanded to over several times its original area, they still needed to say "excuse us" several times before they got to the center where Mrs. Weasley had decked all the tables in the house with splendid food. After they had each gotten something to eat, Ginny hurried off to help her mother who was having trouble moving a large cauldron of soup off the stove. Harry, Ron and Hermione moved over towards a small card table and sat down. From that point of view they examined the room and the decorations.

"Look," said Harry, "They've made us a banner!" True to his word, a large banner with the words 'Congratulations Ron, Harry, Hermione on Excellent OWL scores!' The banner flashed multicolor lights and took up one whole side of the room.

"It looks like almost everyone from the Order is here." Said Ron after they finished admiring the banner. "Look, there's Moody, and Lupin, and Kingsley, and look; Tonks has her hair green now, and look how tall she's made herself!" It was true. Tonks, who had the ability to make herself change appearance at will, had decided that she'd spend the night at almost the same height as Hagrid, who was standing next to her.

"Let's go talk to them," said Hermione, gesturing to Moody, Lupin, Hagrid and Tonks. "We can ask them how things are going with the Order." The other two agreed that this was a good idea and put away their plates, which they had emptied. Each holding a bottle of Butterbeer, they continued their journey across the room towards the adults. Once they were about ten feet away, Ron tripped over his shoelace and fell flat on his nose. The hand holding his drink stretched in front of him, not spilling a drop from his bottle. All three of them laughed at Ron, who asked them to wait for him, so that he could tie his shoe. While Ron was busying himself with the frayed ends of the laces, Hermione and Harry managed to catch a brief part of the conversation that the group of Hagrid, Lupin, Tonks and Moody were having.

"If only Sirius were here," said Tonks with a sigh, "he'd really enjoy it."

"He'd be proud," added Mad-Eye Moody. "Always treated Potter like he was his own son."

"If on'y Harry'd 'ave though' t' go an' talk t' Snape abou' the mind readin' lessons 'e was supposed to be getting'." Said Hagrid as Harry stared at him in disbelief. "Then none o' this would 'ave 'appened. Not blamin 'im o'course, just sayin' it woulda helped."

With this Lupin looked down at the floor, a sad and mournful look on his face. He, being one of Sirius' best friends at Hogwarts, had obviously taken the death as a great impact.

Hermione, her eyes wide, turned to Harry with a questioning look. She didn't have to ask, it was obvious that Harry was hurt about what they had said. Before Hermione could say anything he had slammed his bottle down on a nearby empty table with a bang and was walked quickly out of the room, letting the door swing shut on his way out.

Ron, who had just risen from the floor, looked at Hermione with a confused look.

"What happened to him?" he asked, as the two heard an upstairs door slam loudly.

"Just stay here, I'll talk to him," was all she said before she put down her own drink and followed Harry.

As soon as she had left the room, Hermione sprinted up the stairs past the portrait of Sirius' mother, who had been woken up and was now screaming at the top of her lungs:

"MUDBLOODS AND COWARDS – HOW DARE YOU BESMIRK THIS HOUSE OF MY FATHER'S!"

Ignoring the screams, Hermione rushed up to Harry and Ron's room, throwing open the door to find Harry pacing, his hands clinging to his hair, obviously trying to pull it out. His face was flushed and his eyes were brighter than usual, reflecting to light from the ceiling lamp.

"Harry, it's okay, they didn't mean that," Hermione gasped, out of breath. "It's okay Harry."

Hermione stared at him, her eyes wide as she bit her lip. "Please Harry, you don't need to get upset, we'll go down and talk to them about it."

Harry sat down on the bed, head in his hands. "You don't understand Hermione. I- I, YOU AREN'T ME! ALRIGHT?" He looked up at her, his eyes red by now. "Everything- everything goes wrong. Always. And it's all my fault." He looked back down at his knees, sniffing hard and shaking with dry, silent sobs.

"Harry, it isn't you- It's just- It's-" Hermione desperately ran her hand through her hair.

"See? You can't-" Harry hiccupped. "YOU CAN'T EVEN THINK OF A REASON!" He got to his feet once more and returned to pacing. "IT'S ALWAYS MY FAULT! I got you hurt last year, if it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't have to take-" he swallowed, "that medicine, and- and Sirius would still be alive, and I'd probably be LIVING WITH HIM right now."

Hermione wiped her eyes and was surprised to find them wet with tears. "Harry, just listen-"

She made to move towards him, her hands outstretched but he shoved her away. When she approached again he let out a yell, "they did mean it, they meant every word!" Harry pushed her harder than he meant to, knocking her down. Hermione stared up at him from the floor, her eyes glistening with tears and her face scared. Harry looked down at her for several seconds, not saying anything but looking horrified at what he had done. Looking at his hands and then back at her tear-streaked face he began to cry harder himself. Whirling around he kicked his trunk as hard as he could and swore when he felt it make contact with his toes.

"SEE," he shouted, "I'm A MURDERER!! JUST STAY AWAY FROM ME! TELL EVERYONE TO STAY AWAY! I DESERVE TO DIE!"

Hermione took her chance and rushed to his side, putting her arms around him and holding him close before he could push her away again. Harry, gasping for air, broke down in tears against her shoulder, crying like he had never done before.

"It's okay Harry." Hermione whispered in his ear, "It's alright."

Hermione stayed with Harry till he calmed down considerably, then left the room so that he could change. Reentering when he was finished, she and Harry had a long talk about Sirius and his death. Hermione finally left when Harry had fallen asleep.

Back down at the party she told Ron, though he pestered to know more, that Harry wouldn't want to talk about it when he awoke the next morning and that what had been said was Harry's business. Then she herself when up to her own room and changed for bed.


	4. 4: Defining Gorgeous

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Hey guys! Welcome to chapter four! I hope that you are enjoying your read! Please review! Thnx

**Chapter 4: Defining Gorgeous**

The next day, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione went to Diagon Alley to do their school shopping. No one mentioned what had happened the night before. Though the air between Ron and Harry was tense, they tried to imagine that the outburst had never happened. By the end of the day they were laughing together again, each having been forced to spend a good amount of money at 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes,' the store that Fred and George had opened. The twins had caused a great commotion in the alley when they started up several of their everlasting fireworks. Harry, Ron and Hermione returned to Grimmuald Place that night laden down with more birthday hats, a year's supply of Skiving Snack boxes, and several Canary Creams apiece.

Within no time, summer vacation was over and it was September 1st, time to leave their peaceful trance and board the Hogwarts Express. On Platform 9 3/4, Harry, Ron and Hermione all noticed several people they had not seen before. Not including the first years, there was also another new student. Ron picked her out of the crowd immediately. The bright peachy orange streaks in her dark brown hair made her very noticeable.

"Harry!" Ron elbowed his friend hard in the ribs.

"What did you do that for?" exclaimed Harry, rubbing his side.

"Look at her, over there, she's new, isn't she?"

Harry looked around. He saw and unfamiliar girl clad in an orange tank top, and army green, very baggy cargo pants. She had a black bandana tied into a dew rag over her streaked hair. She was carrying a large backpack that looked like it held about thirty pounds. In addition she had an abnormally large duffle bag, which she had somehow forced onto a trolley.

Hermione leaned over, poking both boys in their backs. "Stop staring, it's embarrassing! Impolite, too!"

Harry and Ron didn't stop. Hermione gave Harry a hard kick in the ankle and he refocused his attention on her. Ron seemed to have fallen into a trance.

"You know what Harry? She might be even more gorgeous than Fleur from fourth year. And she's no veela! We have to get to know her, don't we Harry?"

"I don't think she's that exceptionally good looking," said Harry, just for the sake of Hermione, who was looking like she could hex Ron. The girl was in fact very pretty, and it was obvious that Hermione knew it. The new girl left their range of vision when she entered the train and Ron, still looking slightly stunned, turned to say goodbye to his family. Harry and a rather disgruntled Hermione, followed him.

"She seems a bit weird," whispered Harry to Hermione. He was relieved when she broke her disheveled expression with a weak grin.

"I'm glad you aren't as brain-dead as he is," Hermione smiled. Then, more to herself than to Harry, she said, "She does seem interesting though."

Harry, Ron and Hermione hoisted their heavy trunks aboard the train at two minutes 'till eleven on the sunny day. Once they had gotten the luggage into the corridor between compartments the train began to move.

"So," said Harry, "Do you two have to go to the Prefects compartment?" He really didn't want them to go, but asked anyway to make it less awkward for them.

To Harry's surprise, Ron and Hermione smiled at the question.

"No Harry, that's only for 5th year prefects," explained Hermione. "All they do is explain stuff, we can sit wherever we want this time." Grateful, Harry pulled his trunk down the corridor with his two best friends. Everything was full except the last compartment, which held the girl in orange.

"Well," said Hermione, almost wickedly. "Ron, you got your wish, you get to meet her." She grinned evilly in front of the closed, glass door.

Ron looked horror struck at the idea of being within ten feet of the new student.

"No way. We can't go in there."

Hermione doubled her grin and slid the compartment door open.

"Hello, do you mind if we join you, everywhere else is full."

The girl smiled at Hermione and all three of them couldn't help but notice again, that she _was_ exceptionally pretty.

"Sure! Come in, nothing on me!"

Hermione quickly put her trunk in the overhead compartment with help from Harry and went to sit across from the girl. After placing his own trunk overhead and helping Ron with his, Harry quickly rushed in to sit next to Hermione, leaving the seat next to the new girl free. After Ron had closed and locked the overhead compartment he came in to sit down. His face turned redder than a tomato when he saw what the other two had done. Looking near suicide, he took the seat next to the girl. Harry almost started to laugh but held back when Hermione stepped on his foot.

Leaning forward, she introduced herself to the new girl, "I'm Hermione Granger. What's your name?"

"I'm Alexis Garcia, and you are--?" She indicated Harry, and Ron who was still staring at the floor.

"I'm Harry Potter, and um, this is Ron Weasley." Ron looked up and seemed grateful that Harry had introduced both of them. He smiled sheepishly at Alexis, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Oooo…" Alexis gasped. "Are you related to Harvey Potter? That guy who defeated Voldemort?"

Ron winced when she said You-Know-Who's name, but didn't comment on the fact. Harry felt his face turn pink. There was an awkward silence

"Um, no." Hermione rescued him. "It's Harry, and he is the one."

"Oh. I'm so sorry, Harry. I knew it was Potter but—Sorry."

There was another awkward silence, which Alexis broke by speaking again.

"So you're a Weasley?" She indicated Ron who looked up from the floor, obviously surprised.'

"Er- yeah," he said, staring at her.

"Do your brothers own Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes?"

Ron stared for several seconds after she said this, his jaw going like a fish out of water. "Um- yeah," was all he finally managed. Alexis looked excited at this fact.

"Oh – my - god!" She almost screamed. "I love that place. I get orders from there. Fred says I'm their biggest customer." I have a ton of stuff in my bag right now that I bought just a few days ago."

"Really," said Harry, slightly surprised. "I didn't know they had such good business. I mean, they've only been open for a few months." He glanced at Ron. There was an awkward silence.

"What year are you in?" he turned to Alexis.

"Oh. I'm 16, so I think that I'm going into 6th, right?"

"Yeah," Hermione attempted at friendship, "that means we're in the same year! We can show you around and stuff. You'll really like it at Hogwarts. Where did you go originally?"

The girl ginned, apparently grateful for Hermione's offer and encouragement. She started to speak as she patted Crookshanks, Hermione's cat, who was now sniffing the backpack Alexis had been holding between her feet the whole time.

"Well, originally I'm from Spain. I lived there 'til I was two. Then my family, my parents and my older sister (she's twenty-five), moved to New York City in the US. We lived there 'til just a few weeks ago." Alexis said all this very fast, as if she was trying to get it over with. She continued, though it was with a pained expression. "Now I live with my sister, Steph, in Diagon Alley. She got this major job offer in a hair studio. It's like the biggest thing she's ever done. She used to just work at bars and ice cream places and stuff, but this pays a lot more, so we moved here."

Harry looked at her quizzically. Ron was staring, his expression blank and his mouth halfway open.

"What about your parents?" Harry asked.

"Um…" She seemed to be at loss of words. "Th-they died in a car accident several years ago."

Hermione and Ron seemed shocked but Harry looked at the floor. He knew what it was like.

"Oh my goodness," Hermione whispered. "We are _so_ sorry," But the Alexis seemed not to mind. She brushed the apology aside and didn't seem to want to talk about the subject.

"It's OK. It was a really long time ago. Let's talk about something else." As she said this she opened the backpack that had been resting between her feet. Out jumped a bright white husky dog, about 10 inches at the shoulder with black nose and eyes. "Do you guys mind if I let her out? Her name is Nieve. It means 'snow' in Spanish." Alexis smiled at them, obviously not seeing the horrorstruck expression on Hermione's face. Crookshanks had begun a hissing fit on the spot, his tail three times the usual diameter and fur on his back standing strait up.

"Umm…" Hermione was obviously very mad and trying to hide it. "I guess I'll just have to put Crookshanks in his carrier then. He isn't very fond of dogs."

"Oh no!" Alexis was ginning broadly now. "Nieve gets along with cats just fine." Even as Alexis had said this the two animals seemed to be getting acquainted (Crookshanks was now sniffing Nieve and vise versa.) Hermione still seemed very angry.

"Oh come off it, Hermione." Ron butted in, taking sides with Alexis, "look at them. Crookshanks is almost bigger than the dog! They're getting along fine." Hermione sighed.

"OK. I guess. But we aren't allowed dogs at school, you know."

Alexis didn't act like this rule was new to her at all. She reached down and petted her dog. "I know about the rule, but I couldn't leave Nieve behind. She's like my best friend. Plus, she's a _toy_ American Eskimo dog, not a real size one!

Harry looked at Hermione, who was now sitting Indian style on the seat next to him and seemed to be accepting the dog, even though it was against the rules. She reached down and scratched behind Nieve's ears.

"l guess she is small enough to pass as a cat from a distance." Hermione smiled. To the dog she said, "You're such a cute little one, aren't you?"

Harry laughed and rubbed Nieve's stomach. "What are you going to do when we get off the train?" He said to Alexis. "I mean, we aren't aloud to take animals up to the castle for dinner and Filch, the caretaker, comes down here to move all our stuff up to the dorms. He'll be able to tell up close."

"Well, I did some reading on my plane ride here and found this little charm that makes him look just like a long-haired cat." Alexis removed her wand from a pocket in the backpack and pointed it at Nieve. "_Felineor Electrio_!" She said, and the other three watched in awe as the fur on the little dog's nose became fuzzier and the muzzle shrank to half it's original size. "See, now she looks like a deformed cat, you could no way mistake that to be a dog! And you know what, she's littler trained too."

Ron started laughing, "Oh golly! She looks like something went totally wrong!" Both Hermione and Harry's thoughts about the new nose were similar, but they had the sense not to say it out loud. Hermione looked slightly grumpy, as if she had wanted the charm to fail.

"You litter trained her?" Harry tried to keep Alexis from noticing Hermione's look.

"Yeah. That's really what I've been trying to do all summer, ever since my sister excepted the job offer." Alexis grinned. She then pointed her wand at Nieve again and said "_Crono Prego!"_ and the dog tuned back to it's usual self.

"So, what are the good bands around this parts?" Alexis picked up Nieve and cradled the white, fluffy animal in her arms as it licked her face.

"Bands?" Hermione turned her back towards the window and pulled her knees up close so that her socked feet pointed down the seat towards Harry. Her shoes were on the floor, where Crookshanks sat batting at them.

"Yeah. Like, groups, something I could join."

"Well- I don't think there are any." Harry shrugged. Alexis looked disappointed and disbelieving.

"Really? I was in a band in New York. I play guitar and it was my life. I was their lead singer."

"Really? Well, Ron, he plays drums. He's just started but he's getting better. Right Ron?" Hermione seemed to be trying to get back into the conversation again.

"Um. Yeah. Something like that." Ron's ears turned pink.

"Do you!?" Alexis seemed happy to hear this. "Maybe we should get together sometime. I've written some things and you could check them out."

Hermione grinned awfully at Ron once more, who looked horrified.

"That sounds wonderful!" Hermione said for Ron, even though he looked utterly terrified of the idea. "That would be great. And also to mention, his sister Ginny plays piano and I think her boyfriend's been playing guitar for several years." It was obvious that Hermione was trying to hook Ron up with Alexis, though maybe she was doing it more out of.. well.. jealously, than offering a helping hand.

"Okay then." Alexis gave another one of her enthusiastic smiles and Ron looked like he was about to melt.

Oddly, this caused Hermione to turn sour and she grumpily pulled 'Hogwarts, A History' out of her bag. Even though this was one of multiple copies she owned, the book was very beat up from the many times that she had leafed through it, trying to find some precise detail or fact. She flipped it open to somewhere in the middle and with a strangely jovial smile to the others, dismissed herself to another period of intense fact seeking.

Seeing Hermione disappear behind the creased leather cover, Harry and Ron launched a conversation that they were sure their friend would not take great interest in: the Gryffindor quidditch team. To their surprise, Alexis went completely haywire at the thought of the sport and began jabbering at high speeds about how she had played for the junior state team in New York. Apparently, each of the fifty US states had their own team and New York had come up second the previous year, right after California, which had won by a mere ten points difference in the national final. This conversation lasted them for almost an hour as Alexis explained countless new moves that she and her fellow chasers had developed while on the team.

The topic of conversation changed as they moved to Gryffindor Quidditch and then tryouts. Soon the subject was not just the team, but the whole of Hogwarts. The rest of the train ride was spent talking about the different teachers and classes. Harry and Ron had fun describing how horrible Professor Snape and Professor Binns were while Hermione sat back and glared at Harry, as if blaming him for not involving him in the conversation. She, however, did join in and agree that Professor Trelawney was an old fraud when the subject of Divination was mentioned. Alexis looked upset at this, since she was actually taking the subject, but she soon got over it.

The foursome laughed over various subjects while eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, trying out the mystery flavors but spitting many of them into napkins.

When they arrived in Hogsmeade Station the four of them had already changed into their robes. Ron, having grown quite a bit over the summer, seemed more self-conscious than usual about his slightly short robes. As they got of the train he kept tugging and trying to make them seem longer. Eventually he pulled too hard and a small seam ripped at his shoulder. Cursing, he tied to cover it up be saying he had shoulder pains while pretending to massage himself.

As they were walking form the train Harry noticed for the first time how tiny Alexis was compared to the rest of the company. The top of her head seemed to just level with his shoulder and the distance between the highest points on her and Ron were immense. She even seemed quite a bit shorter than Hermione, who was nearing five foot seven. Harry brushed the thought aside. But apparently, she overcame her size and was still able to play quidditch at a pretty decent level. He wondered how she could play chaser, but reminded himself that some small things could contain a huge amount of energy and power.

As they were getting into the horseless carriages, Hermione jumped.

"Look," she said, pointing. "There are horses now."

Harry smiled, "you can see them now, the thestrals, Ron can too." Hermione almost instantly showed an expression of regret. About to apologize, Harry brushed the things she was about to say away and continued to walk towards one of the black carriages. He tried not to remember why she could see them but the whole scene of Sirius falling through the veil flooded back to him. The only ones who could see thestrals were the people who had seen death; Harry had witnessed the tradgedy twice in the past two years.

When Harry, Hermione, Ron and Alexis entered a carriage Harry sat by the window and didn't speak until they were in the entrance hall. He tried to hide his face and not let the others see how his eyes had turned overly bright. Hermione must have noticed but she didn't say anything. She just took his hand and held it in hers. Harry let her without complaint. He glanced sideways at Hermione. He wondered if she knew it wasn't just Sirius that was bothering him. Did she know about the Prophecy? He was a marked man. His fate was either to kill Voldemort or die trying. Did any of them know? Harry turned back to the window, blinking hard to try and clear his vision.

By the time they left the carriages Harry's eyes were dry again and he was smiling with the others, glad to be back at Hogwarts for another year.


	5. 5: A Healthy Appetite

**Chapter 5: A Healthy Appetite**

As the students entered the Great Hall for supper, Ron brought up a point for all of them to consider. "Alexis," he said, "how do you know what house you're in? Don't you need to be sorted?" They all turned to her, waiting for a reply.

"A few weeks ago, the headmaster guy sent me a letter. He said that it was OK for me to choose which house I wanted to be in. I could ask around and just join the house with friends in it. He said it would be easier for me to, you know, fit in or something." She grinned at them. "So, where do you guys sit?" At this Hermione rushed off towards the Gryffindor table, leaving the rest of them behind. Harry felt a wave of confusion and anger at her rudeness, which was obviously directed towards Alexis.

As they were sitting down, Ron grabbed the seat to the right of the one Alexis had chosen while Harry tried to hold in laughter, and Hermione glowered at her feet. Harry took the seat across from Ron, next to Hermione, waiting for the sorting to begin so that they could start on their meal.

The seats around them were quickly filled up with fellow Gryffindors. Ginny grabbed the seat next to Hermione and immediately began gibbering about how she would be taking the O.W.L.s this year and how she really wished she would pass all 14, like Hermione had done. Seamus Finnigan took the seat next to Alexis while his best friend Dean Tomas, sat next to his girlfriend, Ginny. Neville Longbottom, a slightly pudgy, forgetful boy, sat down next to Harry and immediately said how happy he was that he had passed five of his O.W.Ls. Their conversations were halted in mid sentence as the first years entered the hall in a long, unorderly line.

As Professor McGonagall, the transfiguration teacher, placed a very worn hat on a stool in front of the students, Ron quickly explained to a confused Alexis that each first-year would have to try on the hat and it would decide what house they were to be in. Alexis, though still looking confused, followed everyone else's example as they stared, unblinkingly, at the hat. Once the whole hall was quiet the hat seemed to come alive. It stretched itself out so that its tip pointed up to the sky and gave forth a loud sound that one could not have mistaken for anything other that a hoarse cough. There were several more moments of silence and the hat exploded into a croaky song.

"Long ago when I was new

When Hogwarts just began,

I was chosen for this job,

I'll do the best I can.

I'm here to sort you into groups,

Using all your brain,

I'll find the strength and good in you,

And put you with the same.

In Gryffindor you'll find the brave,

Those with courage and will,

You will learn the greatest things,

Until your brains all fill.

In Ravenclaw you'll find the smart,

Those with thirst to learn,

You'll be put inside this house,

If you've got smarts to burn.

In Hufflepuff you'll find the workers,

Those who never quit,

If you've been put in Hufflepuff,

You'll make the best of wit.

In Slytherin you'll find the wish,

To become the great and strong,

'Cause power lies within the hearts

Of those within this throng.

I wish I didn't have to sort you,

It seems not very smart.

Though I will regret it soon,

I still must make you part.

In these houses I will form,

You'll join in hands with others.

Though I must tear some apart,

You still must act like brothers.

Join hands between the houses,

Form bonds of friendship and love,

'Cause in these great dark times,

Friends are greater and above.

Though evil may divide you soon,

It may be for the best,

For patches make the fabric stronger,

And the flaws will save the rest.

So remember these words,

And prove them right!

Your mended bonds will

Save you from the fight!

Now welcome all Hogwarts,

A school for only the wise,

What we teach you at Hogwarts,

Will stick till each of you dies."

As the hat finished its song the Great Hall burst into applause. People from the Gryffindor table cheered exceptionally loudly compared to the other three houses.

"Um lets see- 'power lies within the hearts' hmmm… I didn't know that the Slytherins had hearts…" Ron said sarcastically over the din. Harry laughed at this remark but Hermione gave the gangly read-head a disapproving look.

"Did you three understand the part about the patched fabric?" Asked Hermione, but there wasn't any time to answer. The hall was now once again quiet and the first years were shuffling towards the hat with nervous looks on their faces.

Professor McGonagall had unrolled a large scroll and was now reading off the names of the new arrivals alphabetically. "Anderson, Cole." Her voice echoed through the hall as a small, dark-haired boy trotted forward and jammed the hat over his head. His brown eyes were barely visible bellow the brim but the whole student body could still see as they darted back and forth in a nervous frenzy. He seemed to sit on the stool forever till the hat finally shouted out a house name to the hall.

"GRYFFINDOR!" With obvious relief the boy placed the hat back on the stool and ran off to join the Gryffindor table, whose members had risen in a great explosion of applause. The sorting continued and Ron, Harry and Alexis, to Hermione's great disapproval, started playing hangman on a scrap of parchment Harry had found in the pocket of his robes.

The sorting ended with "Willows, Brooke" who became part of the Ravenclaw table. The hangman parchment was hastily put away as Dumbledore began his annual, start of the year speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen, students and teachers, ghouls and ghosts; It's the beginning of another year at Hogwarts!" The headmaster paused until the whoops of several students had subsided, and did not continue until all the echoes had ceased from the room. "We know that the past year has featured hard times for many families. Hopefully we are all glad that to be back. I must say that I am quite pleased that the ministry has finally come up to date on current events, though it did take them a whole twelve months." Dumbledore paused again and scanned the heads of the students, his eyes twinkling, then continued in a graver tone.

"We are all well aware that there will be danger in the coming months, maybe even years. We are also aware that we must face those dangers, not alone, but as a group, for together we are stronger than when we are parted. I encourage you to try and become closer with those you have always despised. Forget your differences and think of what we are facing together. Remember, as the hat said, a mended friendship is often stronger than one that has never been broken, for once you have worked out a problem there will be greater understanding between the two people. Forgive each other and work together towards a common goal. So, now that you are plagued with these words of advice," Dumbledore smiled weakly, bringing out even more lines on his old, weathered face, "you can get to eating." He turned away from the students, and idle chatter quickly began.

"Oh! And one more thing you ought to know," The headmaster returned once more from his seat at the table. He coughed. "Your defense teacher is having some difficulty getting here for the first few days of term. Whichever classes that you might have with him will be canceled." More cheers from the audience. "_But only for a few days!_ He _guarantees_ that he will be here by Wednesday night." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled once more. "Now! Now, you may begin eating."

Applause broke out from among the Hogwarts students. It quieted almost instantly when the food appeared on the tables however, and students were soon serving themselves from dishes that had formerly been filled with thin air, now bearing foods of all sorts.

Ron lunged for a large bowl of mashed potatoes while Alexis gave a squeal of surprise at the quick appearance of the large array of edibles. She joined Ron in his fight with Seamus Finnigan over the mashed potato spoon, and eventually won by hitting Ron in the nose with the saltshaker. Seamus, not wanting to be injured, recoiled in shock and watched her pile a fourth of the bowl's contents onto her plate. Hermione observed with disgust as Ron took the bowl and made sure to pile more than twice as much on his own dish. His plate had now magically expanded, doubling its normal diameter, to hold the large quantity of potatoes.

Harry, immune to their great lack of manners, helped himself to an appropriate portion roast beef, then offered the platter to Hermione. She accepted it while still watching the other two reproachfully.

Their redheaded friend began burrowing deeply into the great, white, mountain on his plate as Seamus finally got his shot at the almost empty bowl of spuds. Ron returned from his mining expedition and sprayed the entire group with white fluff as he commented on how good it was.

"Erm-my-nee," he spurted with his full mouth. He swallowed and continued, overlooking the fact that Hermione was now cleaning his food off the front of her freshly ironed robes. "These are great, you should try some." Ron then lowered his head again as he began shoveling more potatoes into his mouth from the quickly diminishing heap. Hermione glared at Ron.

"I would," she said sarcastically. "They just happen to be all gone." But Ron, who obviously hadn't heard, was polishing off the rest of the roast beef that Harry and Hermione had helped them selves to earlier. The meal continued in this way, though Alexis did not eat nearly as much as Ron did, who had a variety of chicken, vegetables and pies before he finally declared himself full.

An hour or so later the students made their way up to the dorms. To the amusement of the others, Ron declared himself "horribly ill" halfway up the marble staircase and rushed off to find a nearby restroom while clutching his stomach. The other three continued up to the Gryffindor common room flanked by first-years, who were receiving directions from Hermione for she, as well as Ron, was once more a Prefect.

After giving the password ("Goblins Gobble Good Grub") and entering through the portrait hole, Harry bid his farewell to the two girls and continued up to the boys' 6th year dorm, which was located at the top of a narrow spiral staircase.

The girls continued up their own staircase after saying good-bye to Harry. In the dorm they were greeted by their pets as Hermione showed Alexis to the free bed. While they changed out of their uniforms, Hermione questioned Alexis.

"So, how do you like Hogwarts?" She asked, moving a disgruntled Crookshanks off her trunk so that she could get to her bedclothes. Alexis paused and then straitened up, already changed for bed.

"Well, all the stuff I've seen is pretty cool, like the ceiling in the Great Hall, how it mimics the real sky. The food's great too." She grinned awkwardly and pulled back the covers to her bed. "Ron is really sweet. I like the way he smiles, you know, sort of lopsided." She giggled. "He doesn't have a girlfriend though does he?"

Hermione turned towards her the new girl, her face blank. "Umm… No. He doesn't. Never has had one." Inwardly she felt a wave of cold towards Alexis. Aloud, Hermione continued prissily. "Why? Do you have something for him?"

Alexis turned bright red at this question and shrugged her shoulders. "Harry's really nice too," she covered up for herself. "He seems really serious sometimes though."

Hermione gave an involuntary twitch at these words and turned away to get into bed, her mouth open as if she wanted to say something. Then, though it didn't seem like her first choice, she murmured, "He's been having a really hard time lately- so- I don't think-" She paused. "Never mind. He's just been through a lot." Rolling over, she pulled the chain on her bedside lamp, turning it out as Alexis did the same to her own.

By the time Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown entered the dorm they were both fast asleep.


	6. 6: First Impressions

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Hey all my loyal readers! Sorry I havn't posted in so long. My comp had a meltdown and we had to load all the files onto the laptop. It's hard to get used to the iBook again after using the G5 iMac for so long. It feels like an eternity to load things up! Well, I hope you guys are still with me (If you're reading I guess you are)!

Jess

PS. I hope you like this chapter! Please review! Zoe (the author) likes reading them!

**Chapter 6: First Impressions**

The next morning Harry and Ron woke to bright sunlight pouring in through the tower window. After changing into their uniforms they headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Hermione was already sitting at the Gryffindor table when they arrived.

Harry stretched and yawned; "Wh-where's Alexis?" he said.

"She was still asleep when I came down," Hermione said curtly.

"Oh." Harry took a roll from the basket and started buttering it.

"McGonnagal already came around with the schedules. I got yours for you, too." Hermione handed them their folded sheets of parchment. "She gave me Alexis's and she wants me to lead her around." Hermione sighed. "That means I'll have absolutely no time to myself."

They sat in silence for several seconds.

"Do you not like her or something?" Ron looked up from his porridge all of a sudden. "I think she's really great. She seems like a really… I dunno… Like a cool person."

"I think so, too." Harry took a bite out of his roll and Hermione huffed, pretending to be extremely interested in her schedule.

"She's a bit annoying, wouldn't you think?" Hermione said after a few moments. "I mean, she's just an American, and she's obviously got no manners at all. Really, I don't know why you seem to like her that much."

"Well, if all Americans are like that girl, _I_ think that Americans are absolutely wicked." Ron grabbed Alexis's schedule and started comparing it with his. Harry hid a smile and concentrated on his bread.

The trio ate in silence for several minutes. Suddenly, the whole Great Hall was disrupted when a girl their age strolled in. The shirt of her uniform was tied up at her waist in a knot and her tie hung, loosely draped over her shoulders. She was singing what sounded a strange rendition of the Lion King theme at a high volume and, of course, everyone stared at her.

"Good Morning!" Alexis said cheerily as she took the seat next to Hermione, her face very jovial. "Why the glum faces? C'mon! It's the first day of school! We get to learn things!" Hermione glowered at her porridge while Harry and Ron focused their eyes on Alexis, though totally speechless.

"Um, anyway," Ron broke the silence, "It looks like you three have Potions first thing this morning, and I have Prefect duty. I'd forgotten that sixth years have to patrol as part of their regular schedule."

Alexis looked torn between delight and a pout. "Oh goody! We have potions; I've never taken that before!" She grinned. It was Hermione's turn to stare. "That's really sad that you aren't with us though, Ron."

"You've never had potions, and they put you in the N.E.W.T course?" Hermione looked at her in disbelief; ready to kill, or faint. Either state would have described her situation very well. "We slaved on those tests! We studied for months!"

"Actually, Hermione, Ron and I didn't study all that much. It was just you." Harry smiled at his own joke.

"That's not funny. We worked our behinds off, and now she just gets in without any work at all. Seriously, you'd expect they'd put her in he ordinary class, not in the advanced one."

"Well, I took the test. It wasn't that hard to follow." Alexis began feeding herself scrambled eggs. "For my first time, I thought I did very well."

"How good is 'very well'?" Hermione questioned.

"I got an 'Outstanding' on my practical, but an 'Achieving Expectations' on the theory. I did study a lot though. I read through the potions books they sent me several times, and I've always been interested in the subject, even though they didn't teach it at my school."

Hermione seemed speechless.

"We all have Herbology right before lunch." Harry changed the subject as he scanned the schedules. "And- oh no, look Ron, you and I have Divination today, too."

Ron groaned. "I was hoping that I'd flunked out of that subject. Well, at least we're taking the stupid one. Think of how miserable we'd be if we'd made it into Advanced. That would mean three hours a week instead of just two."

"Hey! I'm taking Advanced!" Alexis exclaimed with her mouth full. "I actually think that the subject's really fun. You get to make stuff up."

Harry grinned at this, but Ron didn't seem to have any reaction. He just stared at her, his expression blank.

"So, what am I having that period?" Hermione interrupted Ron's stupor. He looked down at the schedules.

"Oh. Er, you have... um, you have Ancient Runes and Alexis- you have Arithmancy. Then we all have double charms at the end of the day."

"Wait, aren't I supposed to have Arithmancy with you, Hermione?" Alexis put down her fork and took the two of their schedules. Hermione didn't reply.

"Hermione's in N.E.W.T. level." Harry explained when Hermione refused to answer. He leafed through the papers again. "Hermione, you have that class Double first thing on Tuesdays, and the one hour at ten past ten on Thursdays."

Hermione smirked and continued to butter her bread. "I guess studying does pay off sometimes, doesn't it?" She aimed the comment at Alexis, but the girl didn't seem to hear her. Harry shot Hermione a look and the brunette concentrated on her bread again.

"Oh! And will you look at that!" Ron put his hands up in the air as if receiving applause from an audience. "Everyone else has a free period tomorrow morning! We get to sleep in while Hermione gets to take some fancy class and predict the future using math!" Ron laughed.

"Well, I can't help it if I'm smarter than you," she said snotily, though she didn't look up. Ron made a face.

"I can't help it if I'm more stupid."

"Yes, you can." Hermione's voice cracked with a mixture of anger and frustration as she hid her face from view. Ron was about to say something in defense, but he closed his mouth on the words.

"When's Defense?" Hermione said, directing the topic along a different path. Harry busied himself once more with the schedules.

"We have it on Wednesday, second period, but I guess that's free this week since the Professor won't be here. We'll have it doubles Friday, first thing in the morning."

"Oh." Ron looked slightly disappointed. "I can't wait to see the new teacher, but I guess we'll know all about him by Friday anyway..."

Breakfast continued in the same manner for several minutes, Hermione silent as Harry and Ron covered everyone's schedule aloud, with small additives and jokes from Alexis. When the bell signaled it time to report to their morning classes, McGonnagal quickly rushed over to the foursome before they could leave.

"Good morning Potter, Granger, Weasley, and, of course, Ms. Garcia." McGonagall smiled rather stiffly as she said Alexis's name, eyeing the girl's strategically arranged shirt.

"Good morning, Professor." Hermione hoisted her bag onto her shoulder and smiled at the teacher. Harry and Ron just nodded. Alexis didn't say anything, cramming a last minute roll into her mouth.

"Ms. Garcia, I need to have a word in my office before you head off to your classes. Ms. Granger, your friend will not need your assistance on her way to Professor Snape's class. Mr. Weasley, you will come with me as well, seeing that you have Prefect Duty, you will lead Ms. Garcia to her class after we are done taking." McGonnagal gave another lemon sucking grimace. "And Potter," her face softened. "It's great to see you back again." Then quickly she added, "It's wonderful to have all of the students back."

"It's great to _be_ back Professor." Harry replied, slightly confused at being singled out.

"Good-bye." Hermione waved over her shoulder as she herded Harry out of the Great Hall, leaving the other two behind.

"I'll see you in a little bit!" Alexis called after them. Hermione ignored her, but Harry at least turned to wave.

Harry and Hermione walked quietly for several minutes, following the usual crowd of students down the side staircase to the Dungeons, where Professor Snape held his potions class.

"I think that you could be a bit more welcoming to Alexis," Harry broke the silence, shifting his bag onto the other shoulder. "I think she's really a great person." Hermione stared at her feet.

"Look," she began after a moment. "I never asked her to come here. I never asked her to try and be friends with _us,_ alright? She should just go bug off and be friends with Luna, or something."

Harry stared at her.

"Wow, Hermione." The two of them stopped walking.

"What?"

Harry paused slightly; "I just never knew you were like that." With those words the boy walked off, leaving Hermione standing in the midst of the corridor, staring after him.

After a moment of thought, Hermione hurried after Harry, weaving her way through the packed hallway.

"Alright, I'm sorry." Hermione began when she caught up with him. When he ignored her, she tried to explain. "I'm just- I'm feeling very replaced." Hermione looked at her feet.

"Replaced?" Harry voiced.

"Well, we've all known each other since first year right? And now, well, she's getting a lot of attention… and..."

"We aren't REPLACING you! No one could ever replace you, Hermione. You're just like… like those trousers that Kreacher would never let Sirius throw away."

"Harry!" Hermione tried to look appalled, but she smiled through her mask. "I can't believe- well, thank you."

Harry grinned. "But I still think that you should give Alexis a chance."

"Alright. I'll be partners with her in Potions for a bit, okay?"

Harry clapped her on the shoulder.

"Yeah, that's great." They jogged the last few yards into Snape's Dungeon, making it in right before the bell sounded, marking when they were to be at their classes.

Harry and Hermione took seats next to each other in the very back of the room. Harry gladly accepted the invitation from Seamus, who asked him to sit in Dean Thomas's usual spot. Dean would not be joining them in Advanced Potions that year, since he, like Ron, had not passed the test with exceptionally good marks. Harry himself was surprised that he himself had made the cut.

Just as Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil walked over to the threesome, Snape swept into the dungeon. The two girls quickly scurried back to their table. Even with their haste, they still received a mirror-shattering glare from the Professor. Draco Malfoy, Harry's arch nemesis, smirked and flicked a note to Blaze Zabini, who sat across the isle at another first-row table. Snape ignored this.

"The people in this room are a select few chosen for my N.E.W.T. class," Snape began his usual beginning-of-the-year 'expectations' speech. "I expect you to keep up the score you were given in your O.W.L. and to perform at that level, or greater, at all times. If your average falls below that level you will leave this class and never return." Snape jabbed his wand at the blackboard behind him and directions to a long and complicated potion appeared on its surface. At that moment Alexis walked into the classroom, carrying her backpack and a small, yellow slip of parchment.

"Hi!" She looked around the room, grinning madly. "This is my first year here." She shot another smile at the class. "Where do I sit?" At this, Harry, who was sitting in front of her, grabbed the girl's wrist and pointed to the seat next to Hermione.

"Oh!" She took a seat as Professor Snape scowled.

"Ms. Garcia, you are several minutes late. I do not-"

"But," Alexis sprung to her feet to address the teacher. "Professor McGonnagal had to keep me, to talk to me about my schedule. See- she gave me a pass." Alexis waved the yellow paper at Snape and Harry realized suddenly, that Professor McGonnagal must have given her a lecture on dress conduct as well, since her tie was neatly done up and her shirt was untied and tucked into her skirt. He grinned into his hand, but still kept his eyes on Professor Snape.

Snape glowered even harder at Alexis. "Sit down," he said.

"But the pass, McGonnagal said you need to read it- just to make it official."

"Ms. Garcia, since I am part of the staff, you will refer to me as 'Sir' or 'Professor' whenever you want to say something. Now, must I remind you one more time to _sit down_!" He turned back to the backboard, ignoring Alexis's yellow slip. The girl stuck out her tongue at Snape's back, and as the rest of the class stifled their laughter, flung herself at the stool Harry had directed her towards. Snape, oblivious to her rudeness, continued the lesson. With a jab of his wand he pasted a long procedure onto the blackboard.

"Today we will be starting our Polyjuice Potion Unit." He turned back around and glared at each of the students in turn.

Harry and Hermione exchanged surprised looks. Having brewed the complicated potion illegally in their second year, they both knew the procedure very well. Harry turned back to Snape as the teacher continued to bark out commands and instructions.

"This unit will last one month, for that is how long it takes the potion to brew. There was one question about this potion on your O.W.L. so each of you hopefully already know something about it. I want you to partner up and begin this recipe. There are several rare ingredients that you have not been asked to buy and you may come get them from my private stores. At the end of this unit you will be drinking a sample of your potion and we will study the effects. I hereby demand that you and your partner must be of the same sex, for you will be transforming yourself into that person. You may begin."

Seamus immediately asked Harry if he wanted to partner up. Next to them, Hermione glanced at Harry and then a bit hesitantly asked Alexis if she wanted to work together.

An hour later the potions were bubbling beautifully in their cauldrons. At this point Harry, Hermione and their partners were the only four in the whole class who had done everything flawlessly. They sat smugly in their seats as the rest of the class tried to figure out what they had done wrong. Malfoy chose that moment to walk over to the quartet as they chatted over their bubbling liquids.

"You think you're so great just because you have Granger as a friend, Potter." Malfoy sneered at Harry. "I, however, do not make friends with nerds and mudbloods just so I can pass classes I'd obviously flunk if I tried them on my own." Harry jumped up at these words, looking like he could punch the other boy.

"You keep your mouth shut Malfoy," he hissed, clenching his fists at his sides. Malfoy however, continued to speak in a louder volume so that the whole class could hear.

"You'll die for what you did to my father, Potter."

"You're father got what he deserved." This time it was Hermione who spoke up, her voice harsh and unforgiving.

Harry and his friends had been directly involved in the capture of Lucius Malfoy the June before, and the man was now a permanent resident of Azkaban wizarding prison.

Malfoy glared at Hermione for several seconds then continued.

"Where's the Weasel King? Is he too poor to buy his textbook? Did he flunk on purpose?"

At this Harry gave a snarl and pulled his arm back to hit the blonde boy, but Hermione grabbed the offending limb around the wrist and held him back. "Not here," she hissed, "Not now." Reluctantly Harry sat back down as Malfoy walked away smirking.

"Why did you have to do that?" Harry asked Hermione. "I could have taken him, you know I could have."

Hermione looked at him with concern written all over her face.

"You know it would have been stupid in front of all these other people. Especially Snape. You'd be doing detention from now until Christmas!"

Harry knew she was right, but he didn't admit it. From Hermione's left Alexis made her own comments about Malfoy.

"He is such a jerk." She said to the others. "I can't believe he said stuff like that about you and Ron, Hermione."

Seamus nodded. "He's been a pain in the ass since the beginning of first year. What makes it worse is how Snape favors-" But Harry interrupted him.

"What happened to our potion?" All four of them turned towards the one cauldron, where Harry and Seamus' potion was hissing and spitting, now purple instead of olive green. Hermione jumped up and craned her neck so that she could see Malfoy's cauldron. His potion was a deep mauve.

"He's got to have taken some of his potion and dumped it in yours!" Hermione hissed.

"That-" Seamus shot Malfoy the finger under the table, but thankfully he, Harry, Alexis and Hermione were the only ones who saw. Alexis lurched to her feet and walked up to Professor Snape, who was criticizing the potion of Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones, two Hufflepuffs near the middle of the classroom.

"Mr.- Sir- Professor Snape." Alexis stuttered but caught her breath.

"Yes." Snape seemed to already dislike her.

"Him- that one- just over there-" she pointed, "wrecked, I mean completely _wrecked_ Harry and Seamus' potion. He poured stuff into it, and now it's purple! It was going really great before, and since Malfoy- _contaminated_ their potion, then I think that he should have a detention or something, because that just isn't fair." Alexis stood on her spot, defiantly staring up at Professor Snape, who must have been about one and one half feet taller than her. At least, that's what it looked like from Harry's point of view.

"Malfoy!" Snape turned to the blonde boy.

"Yes Sir?"

"Come here."

Malfoy came, smirking as usual.

"Mr. Malfoy, this girl is saying that you deliberately fouled another student's potion. Is that true?" Snape smiled. "Tell me that this isn't true."

"It isn't true professor." Malfoy smirked innocently.

"He's lying!" Alexis stood on her tippie-toes, glaring at the teacher. "He did it! He totally did it!" She jabbed Malfoy in the chest, even though he towered over her.

"You," Malfoy sneered, but Snape put a hand on the Slytherin's shoulder and he stopped in mid sentence.

"Mr. Malfoy, you will return to you seat," Snape hissed, and the boy did as told. "However, Ms. Garcia," Shape continued, "you have detention for libel and for physical assault on a fellow student. My room. Friday. Three o'clock. I know that you do not have any classes then. As you were."

"But-" Alexis was struck speechless.

"My room, Friday, at three. Do you not comprehend? I said, as you _were_!" He stalked off to comment on another group of Hufflepuffs.

It was obvious that Alexis had wanted to say more after Snape dismissed her, but she despondently went back to her seat, where Hermione was waiting with a brutal scolding. Halfway through the girl's lecture on self-discipline, Alexis broke through and mentioned something about loyalty of friends, and how that was what Gryffindor was all about. After they had both made their arguments clear, Harry intervened and made them apologize for publicly humiliating each other, and all was well once more, except for the fact that Harry and Seamus' potion was ruined, and Alexis' detention still remained as bold as ever, but one could say that everyone was calm mentally.

Hermione promised to help Harry and Seamus that she would help them re-brew their potion sometime during the week, so that they could smuggle it in to their next potions class and vanish the potion that Malfoy had ruined.

…………………………

Sitting in the common room that Monday night Harry, Hermione and Alexis were bent over the pile of homework they had received from their day's worth of classes. The energy and eagerness of the morning had been stripped from their bodies, like small particles of dust, having fallen into a swiftly moving stream. Alexis was stretched out on the carpet in front of the fire taking notes from 'Advanced Magical Theory' for Charms. Above her, Harry and Hermione were curled up at opposite ends of the couch with lapboards while Ron sat in an armchair inspecting his fingernails. Hermione kept throwing angry glances at the redhead over her work till she finally put down her quill with a huff.

"Ron! Can't you do _anything_ productive? You're just sitting there while the rest of us are getting _loads _done!" On the other side of the couch Harry looked down at his blank Potions essay and decided that this would not be a good time to ask Hermione for help.

Ron looked up from his nails bearing a shocked expression. "No! That isn't true," he protested, holding up his nails to the light of the fire. "I've made loads of progress! Look: they're all clean. After repotting Carnivorous Lemon grass in Herbology, I think this is a pretty good job!"

Hermione made a face as the others laughed at Ron's lame excuse. He continued to clean the nails on his other hand for the next few minutes but reluctantly stopped when he realized that Hermione had not changed her expression.

"Thank you," she smiled sarcastically as he pulled out his Charms homework.

Hermione then turned her attention to Harry, who had said, "I have no clue what to write next. Will you help?" She took the essay from him and read what he had scrawled across the top.

'_**The Polyjuice Potion and Its Effects on the Drinker**_

_**By Harry Potter'**_

"Harry!" She threw the clipboard back at him with a grin. "You're almost as bad as Ron." Harry gasped in mock shock as he rubbed his shoulder where the board had hit.

"You'll pay for that!" He laughed, and threw his empty bag at her. Hermione caught it right after it skidded over her still-wet potions essay, smearing her neat writing. She gasped, staring at her ruined work and then at Harry. Her surprised face quickly splitting into a grin, Hermione pounced on Harry, tickling him until his sides ached with laughter.

"Stop!" Harry shouted, laughing and gasping for air. Hermione relaxed and looked down at him. By now half the people in the common room had stopped talking and were staring at them, their faces split into grins, greatful for a quick distraction form their homework.

Hermione looked around to room at everyone else watching the two of them, and her expression morphed from laughter to horror in a matter of seconds. She looked back at Harry and their eyes locked. He was still smiling. They stared at each other for several seconds, Harry breathing hard and Hermione still straddling Harry's stomach, her hair half in- half out of the bun she had gracefully fixed it in that morning. Then Harry broke their gaze by gabbing Hermione around the waste and tackling her, tickling her back as she curled into a ball with fits of giggling. They rolled off the couch as Hermione screamed with mirth, upsetting Alexis' bottle of ink. ("Hey!") But the mess was quickly forgotten as Ron jumped into the group and began hitting all three of them with pillows from the couch. The tussle ended abruptly however, when a pillow caught fire and Alexis had to put it out with water from her wand.

They all when up to bed with lifted spirits, though none of them had made much of a dent in their large piles of homework.


	7. 7: A Series of Giant Mistakes

**Chapter 7: A Series of Giant Mistakes **

Harry woke late on Tuesday morning to find the boys' dormitory flooded with golden sunlight. He smiled at the dust particles floating in the small ray of sunshine that had crossed his four-poster through the gap in the curtains. He pulled back the heavy velvet drapes and reached for his glasses. Pushing the round frames over his long nose, Harry looked around the dorm room, finding it empty. Harry, thinking they were all down at breakfast and grumbling silently at Ron for not waking him, looked at the clock above the door that led outside to the spiral staircase.

9:17.

Harry blinked.

NINE SEVENTEEN? Their morning classes started at nine! Quickly, he grabbed some clothes and pulled them on while he hopped around the room. Not bothering to tie the laces of his trainers, Harry rushed down the stairs into the common room, trying to make his hair lie flat. He burst into the high-ceilinged chamber; ready to rush off and apologize to whatever teachers whose classes he had missed. With one leg out of the portrait hole, Harry froze.

"Oi! Harry!" A voice came from one of the red armchairs by the fire. Harry stared at the back of the chair, stunned. Suddenly it swiveled around to expose Ron, clutching a bag of what looked like several dozen Chocolate frogs. Ron's hair was in great need of brushing and his face held a slightly puzzled expression. Harry had the feeling that he himself must look very similar at the moment.

He stared at the redheaded boy and then moved his gaze to Alexis, who had just lifted herself up from where she had been lying on the couch, still wearing her pajamas. She stared back at him, her mouth half open, ready to accept something white and cylindrical that she had been about to eat. The food had stopped halfway to her mouth and she didn't seem capable of making her arm move the extra four inches to cover the distance.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked both of them, sounding somewhat alarmed. He adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder, pulling his leg out from the portrait hole and turning his whole body to face the two. "Shouldn't you be-"

But Ron interrupted him.

"We're relaxing and pigging out, Harry. Just like we should be," he said calmly. "It's the friggin' second day of term. Only Hermione is nuts enough to go to her class. In my opinion, she should have skived off, but you know how she loves _Arithmancy_." Harry stared at Ron. Was his friend going mental? It was stupid to try and get a detention in the first week of school.

"Look," Harry said, running his hand through his hair. "I'm going to class. I don't want to line up detentions this early. We have enough things to do as it is." He turned and walked back through the portrait hole but Ron interrupted him once more.

"Oi! Harry!" Ron shouted again. "Wait!" Harry turned. "Look," Ron was holding up his schedule and pointing to the 'Tuesday' column. "We don't have any classes right now. The first thing we've got today is History of Magic, and that isn't until ten past ten." Harry stared at him, wondering if the other boy was just trying to get him to skip class. "Hermione's at Arithmancy right now," Ron explained. "Then, at eleven twenty, I've got my potions class and Alexis' got Hagrid. And you have a free period; so does Hermione. Then, later, after Lunch, we've got Double Care of Magical Creatures while Alexis goes to Divination and last thing, we all have Transfiguration."

Harry pulled his own schedule out of his bag. Scanning it over made him feel really stupid. When he looked back up Ron waved his hand towards himself, gesturing Harry to come sit with them. He was grinning.

For the second time, Harry stepped back into the common room, feeling ridiculous. He walked up to the couch where Alexis was stretched out, now sucking on the white piece of food she had not been able to transfer to her mouth earlier. Harry surveyed her strange pajamas. She was wearing a pair of plaid boy's boxer shorts under an overly large t-shirt featuring the Weird Sisters, a popular wizard's band. Like Ron, her hair was rumpled and in bad need of brushing.

"Budge up." Harry said, asking her to make room for him on the couch. Alexis pulled her bare feet with their chipping red toenail polish closer to herself, leaving half the couch for Harry. She didn't say anything, still sucking on the white thing and staring into the fire, a blank expression on her face.

As soon as Harry took a seat on the couch, Nieve, in cat form, jumped up and began licking his face with great fervor. Harry laughed and petted the dog.

"What's that?" Harry asked Alexis, pointing towards whatever she was eating. She tossed a pink and blue bag at him.

"Marshmallow." Alexis said, pulling a piece of white fluff off her thumb and sticking it in her mouth. "Best American muggle sweet available."

Harry looked inside the bag. It was about 1/4 of the way full with what Alexis called 'marshmallows'. Pulling one out, Harry was just about to take a bite when Ron stopped him.

"I wouldn't if I were you, Harry." He said, looking at the sweets with great distaste. "I tried to eat a whole one all at once. Almost lost my breakfast." Harry looked at the soft, squishy thing in his hand. It didn't really look that bad, but he had never seen Ron turn down any type of candy before. He glanced at Alexis, who was looking at as if the only thing she cared about in the world was to have him prove that Ron had no taste in sweets. Harry took a bite and wrinkled his nose. Swallowing, he threw the other half of the sweet to Nieve, who accepted and wolfed it down obediently.

Harry grimaced, trying to get rid of the aftertaste left in his mouth. "They're like plain sugar!" He told Alexis accusingly. Ron gave a whoop at these words and laughed as Alexis grabbed the bag back from Harry.

"More for me then." She said disapprovingly, taking another marshmallow out of the bag and biting off a large piece. Ron tossed Harry a Chocolate frog, which he ate with new appreciation and hunger while Alexis made a face and exclaimed that the two boys were totally clueless.

…………………………………

Later that day Harry, Hermione and Ron left Alexis at lunch, from which they would go to for their Care of Magical Creatures Class. Walking across the freshly mowed lawn to Hagrid's hut, they were happy to be outside on the bright September day. England had been hit with a pleasing period of Indian Summer, and the students welcomed the extended time of warm weather with exuberant smiles. Ron was still eating chocolate frogs, except this was a new bag, already half empty. In the left pocket of his trousers he had placed the collection of cards from the frogs eaten so far that day. There were a couple dozen of them in all. The path the threesome had taken through the grounds was marked with wrappers that Ron had carelessly strewn across the grass. Even though a disgruntled Hermione vanished half of them as they hit the ground, the trail was still visible and easy to follow.

"Ron," Hermione said as the redhead dropped another brightly colored wrapper onto the grass. "Do you have to be such a litterbug? You could at least put the rubbish back into the bag. Then we could but it in the dust bin later." Hermione twisted her body around as she said this, jabbing her wand at the offending wrapper.

Ron ignored Hermione. Without glancing at her, he licked the chocolate from his fingers and pulled another, brightly wrapped frog from his bag.

"Come on Hermione!" Ron grinned at her as he unwrapped the chocolate and stuck it in his mouth. "You 'no 'at u want one!" He smiled again, his teeth covered in chocolate. Hermione scowled at him.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, it's impolite." At this, Ron looked slightly abashed. He swallowed and, pouting slightly, handed Harry a frog when the other boy gestured for one.

"Oh Ron," Hermione sighed. "Don't be so immature."

Ron pulled another frog from his bag and began to unwrap it, still pouting.

"Fine! Fine! If it matters that much to you- I'll eat one alright?" Hermione huffed. "I didn't mean it as an insult." She grabbed the frog that Ron had partially unwrapped and began to complete the process. "Here, look- I'm unwrapping the frog, and then I'm going to _eat_ it. Happy?"

"Wait! No." Ron grinned and plucked the unwrapped frog from Hermione's fingers. "Eat this one. This one's mine." He handed her another frog, popping the first into his own mouth.

"Er…" Hermione took the new chocolate and examined it. "Why...?"

"Er… Because I touched the other one, and I don't want you to get sick or anything." Hermione knitted her eyebrows at the redhead and unwrapped the frog.

"Oh look! It's got little fangs!" Hermione giggled and showed the chocolate to the other two. Ron grinned but Harry looked confused.

"I've never seen those before-" Harry said to Ron. Hermione poked her pinkie finger at the frog's mouth. It snapped, but she still looked at it as if it were some kind of fluffy bunny-rabbit.

"Um... they're all different... haven't you ever noticed the fanged ones before?" Ron bit his lip and grinned at the same time. 'Say yes' He mouthed at Harry.

"What was that?" Hermione looked back up at them.

"Oh! Um..." Ron stared at the chocolate, which was looking threateningly at Hermione's thumb. It stuck out its tongue and licked the girl, but she didn't seem to notice. "Uhh... nothing."

"Hermione, the frog's going to melt." Ron pointed at Hermione's chocolate, whose fangs had been inching towards her thumb.

"I know." Hermione said, just as she popped the frog into her mouth. "Urgh!" She immediately spat it back out into the wrapper. "Oww!"

Ron doubled over with laughter and Harry nearly jumped out of his skin.

"What happened? Hermione, are you okay?"

"Ron!" Hermione ran several yards to the left of their group and spat into the grass. Still looking appalled, she continued. "You are such a- a-" Hermione couldn't seem to find the appropriate word.

"You fell for it! Ha ha!" Ron howled at the top of his lungs. "Never eat anything that has fangs! That's one of the first lessons of wizarding candy. Right?"

"I thought that you were being a gentleman! Giving me a frog you weren't going to eat in the first place! I should have known!"

Ron just howled louder.

"Wait, what happened?" Harry took a few steps toward Hermione.

"That thing- that frog _bit _me!" Hermione stuck out her tongue at Harry. "See? Right there!" She pointed. Harry could see a red spot where the chocolate had punctured her skin.

"What do you mean?" Harry stared at her blankly. Hermione held out the frog in its wrapper, unfolding the paper.

"See? It has monster fangs! They're sharp!" Hermione stood, chest heaving, with the frog held out to Harry. The black haired boy's face cracked into a grin.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed. "It isn't funny!" At this point the frog jumped back towards Hermione, who squealed and dropped the wrapper. She whacked the frog out of the air in mid jump and took several steps backward, staring at where the chocolate lay in the grass.

"Litterer!" Ron howled. "You threw the wrapper on the ground! Litterer!" Harry had to chuckle at this but Hermione looked mortified.

"I- I-" She inhaled and clenched her fists. "Ron, you are the most- the most _stupid_ person ever!" With this she turned her back on them and ran towards Hagrid's hut, hair flying behind her.

Harry stood still, his smile having disappeared from his face entirely. Ron stopped laughing as well when he realized Hermione had gone and they looked after her together, their expressions somewhat surprised.

"Ron-" Harry began. "She- I don't think that she liked that very much."

"No-" Ron smiled weakly and adjusted his book bag. "Really? I thought-" Ron let out a sigh. "Look- I don't get it. She never likes anything I do. I thought that it was funny. Really."

Harry let out an exasperated sigh and bent over to pick up Hermione's wrapper and the fanged frog from where they lay in the grass. He tucked the colored paper inside his bag and flung the vicious chocolate as hard as he cold into the Forbidden Forrest. The boys could hear its squealing croaks as it landed in the brush.

"Com'on; let's go." Harry put his hand on Ron's shoulder and steered him towards Hagrid's cabin. "We don't want to be late."

The boys reached Hagrid's cabin in a gloomy mood, standing off to the left of the yard. Wordlessly, they each knew that talking to Hagrid wouldn't improve their spirits. Harry noted Hermione standing nearby, but he didn't really know what to say. She hadn't noticed them, for she had her notebook out, and her hair was blocking all view of her face. She didn't seem to be writing anything however. Harry saw Parvati and Lavender walk over to her, smiling and wanting to engage her in a conversation. She glanced up when they addressed her, and Harry was surprised to see Hermione's face tear-streaked and blotchy. Feeling a pang of quilt and remorse, he bit his lip and stared at his feet as Ron was doing. Hermione seemingly had asked the girls to leave, for Lavender quickly gave her a hug and the two walked away, looking slightly stunned and concerned.

At that moment Hagrid come out of his hut, bearing a large cake and a toothy grin. The group of accumulated students hushed and focused their attention on him, studying the cake and shifting their book-bags from shoulder to shoulder.

"Ello ev'ryone!" Hagrid beamed at the students. "We're goin' t' 'ave a very interestin' lesson t'day," He said, "If you'd please follow me. They like dark places, they do, so we're going to 'ave to walk a little bit." Hagrid, still bearing his huge smile, turned and began to walk towards the forest. The students followed his bulky form, murmuring amongst themselves, some looking terrified (Neville) and some as if they thought the lesson would be a joke (Malfoy).

"Dark places?" Ron glanced at Harry as they followed Hagrid to form a long, scraggly line into the forest. "You don't reckon that he'll make us study Aragog now, do you?" The redhead shivered from head to toe, but Harry didn't reply. He was scanning the heads of students in line before them.

"Let's- let's go find Hermione." Harry took Ron's arm and gave him a tug, motioning for the redhead to follow him through the clumps of students. "She's up there."

"Why do we need to find her? She's being a grump." Ron sulked behind Harry as they shouldered their way through and around the sixth years. "I really thought that the frog was funny."

Harry glanced back at Ron. "Ron, she cried." He smiled weakly at Dean and Seamus as he passed them.

"Wait, Harry, what?" Ron skipped to catch up with him. Walking side by side, he continued talking to Harry. "She cried? Why the- why would she _cry_ of all things!"

Harry didn't answer; he just increased his pace, having seen the familiar, bushy head bobbing fifty or so feet behind Hagrid in the line of students.

The two boys caught up with her but she paid them no attention. For several moments they walked in silence and then Harry cleared his throat.

"We'd like to apologize, Hermione." Harry glanced sideways at the girl and she sniffed. "Ron thought that you'd find the frog funny- and- well, I- we're sorry."

Hermione sniffed and hiccupped.

"You're crying again!" Ron took Hermione's wrist and tried to make her turn.

"I'm fine. You don't need to apologize." Hermione hid her face from the boys and wiped her eyes.

"We're really sorry." Harry tried to get around the girl to see her face. "We didn't mean it like that."

"Harry-" Hermione's voice broke. "Don't-"

"Hermione, we didn't do anything! Why are you crying again? We are just trying to _apologize_." Ron raised his voice a bit and tried to turn Hermione around so that she would face him.

"I'm fine! I'm not crying!" The girl jerked her arm free of Ron and ran past Harry farther up the line of students. Ron kicked a nearby tree.

"She was crying! We could see her! What the-" Ron made an undistinguishable sound and pulled at his hair. "I don't _get_ her!"

Harry focused his eyes on the redhead for several seconds and then sprinted off towards Hermione, leaving Ron behind. Coming up behind the girl, he pulled her towards the side of the path and hugged her tightly.

They stood in silence as the students passed them, most of them staring, but Harry ignored them. He stood and hugged his friend and she hugged him back.

"It- it just makes it worse when people say that.."

"I know. We're sorry. We really are sorry."

Hermione buried her face in Harry's school robes and sniffed. They stood for several moments until the girl decided that she felt better.

"Thank you." She pulled away and wiped her eyes. Harry grinned.

"What?" Hermione said weakly.

"My shirt's wet," he laughed and Hermione smiled slightly, sniffing.

"Okay, com'on." He put an arm around her shoulders and they joined Ron again in the line of students, for he had been patiently waiting several feet off, his expression blank. Hermione gave him a quick one-armed hug.

"I'm sorry, Hermione," he mumbled into her hair, hugging her back.

Hermione gave him a weak smile as she broke away, and the three students rejoined the group walking behind Hagrid.

Each minute the procession marched deeper and deeper into the forest, and each moment it grew darker and colder. After ten minutes of steady walking, Ron broke the silence within the threesome with a shiver and a statement that no one wanted to hear.

"I think that he's going to take us to Aragog," Ron twitched uncontrollably. "There isn't anything else this deep in the forest, is there?"

Hermione shushed him.

"He's not that stupid." She shifted the weight of her bag. "It's probably some kind of creature we don't know about…" Her voice trailed off.

"Something big and hairy- and I bet it's black, with fangs… and way too may legs..." Ron rambled on as he hugged himself. "I wish I'd brought my cloak." He shivered, and then continued. "Well, I guess that it's better to freeze to death than to be _eaten_ during a Care of Magical Creatures lesson!"

"Ron, stop it." Hermione shivered as well and blew into her hands.

"No, really!" Ron continued. "I have this feeling- that this is our deathbed. I just know it. Let's think of some good last words so that Rita Skeeter can write an article about our heroic passings."

"Ron!" Hermione glared at him. "Knock it off."

"Yeah, Ron, I don't think this is the best topic…" Harry let out his breath slowly. "So... Hermione... What _do_ you want for your birthday?"

"Do you want those to be your last words, Harry? It would be better if you'd say something more like-"

"Ron!" Hermione huffed. "I'm going to go ask Hagrid what the lesson will be on. Hopefully he'll follow the ministry curriculum like I told him to. We already know it won't be _Aragog_!" Hermione marched off, but it was already too late. From just beyond the closest grouping of fir trees there was a succession of loud thumps. Every one of the students stopped in their tracks, even Hermione, then only several yards from Hagrid, but becoming steadily farther away, for the large man kept walking, apparently unaware that all the talking behind him had ceased.

"What was that noise?" An unmistakable voice came from near the end of the procession. Hagrid swiveled around to look at the speaker. Draco Malfoy stood, looking whiter than usual, with his cronies Crabbe and Goyle. Pansy Parkinson, also a Slytherin, was clutching his arm.

Hargrid's eyes traveled over the terrified faces of the 6th years, not understanding what to make of their frightened expressions. As he focused on Hermione, as well as Harry and Ron, who had came up behind the girl, he cleared his throat and began to speak.

"It's on'y Grawp and Gria. Come on now. Nothing to be scared of." He gestured to the whole group, asking them to come forward. With this last request, he turned and disappeared through the trees.

"He's doing a lesson on giants! And now there's two of them!" Ron looked mortified.

Harry was speechless, but Hermione finally found her voice. Trembling, she tried to reassure her friends.

"Oh come on! You've seen one of them before. You seemed fine with Grawp last year. Now they-" She gestured around at the other students. "- They have a right to be scared out of their minds."

Ron stared at her, wanting very much to turn tail and run. "I-I" he stammered. Then he gave up and stared at his overlarge feet.

Behind them the other students had broken into whispers. Unlike the three at the front of the group, they had no idea what the enormous fir trees concealed. Some had begun to take small backwards steps, trying to put as much distance between themselves and whatever had made the thumping sound.

"Isn' anyone coming?" Came Hagrid's voice through the trees.

There was a moment's silence during which everyone looked at each other, and though their mouths did not, their eyes all said the same thing. There was no way any of the students in this Care of Magical Creatures class would get anywhere closer to the trees that stood in front of them. Hermione, with a nervous glance at her classmates, decided to answer Hagrid's question.

"Hagrid- I don't think we should go further into the forest. It _is_ forbidden." But to everyone's horror, Hagrid seemed fine with this and his answer came easily.

"I'll jus' bring em' out then." Hagrid marched out of the trees. "_Grawp! Grina!_" He called after himself, back into the trees.

"HAGGAR!" An earsplitting roar filled the wood and the students each took a few paces backwards. All the light- if there ever was any in a forest so thick- was blocked by two huge shapes that had appeared from behind the trees. One of them was Grawp, a pure giant, and the other Harry had never seen before, but by guesswork, he could say that this was Grina.

The last time Harry had seen Grawp was the night he and Hermione had led Professor Umbridge into the forest. As of comparison to then, Grawp was almost a foot taller and his face was covered in tiny scars, where he had been hit with millions of centaur arrows. His seventeen-foot body towered over the students and it was obvious that Hagrid was the only person in the group that did not want to put an end to this lesson as fast as possible.

"I wan' you to mee' Grawp an' Grina." Hagrid said as he pointed to each of them in turn, as if introducing the class to new students.

"You are mad." Malfoy's voice cut through the petrified air. "If my father-" Malfoy was cut off abruptly.

"There isn' nothin' your father can do." And for the first time, the blonde boy shut up at something Hagrid had said.

There was another bellow from much higher in the trees. "HAGGAR NOT MAD! Haggar happy!" Grawp's face split into a mistakable grin, showing gigantic yellow teeth to the whole wood.

Hagrid turned his head back to look at Grawp as if he were speaking to a five-year-old. "That's right Grawp."

Everyone stared, their eyes the size of dinner plates as both the giants bent and then sat down hard on the forest floor, crumpling small saplings and bushes. Harry felt the earth shudder as Grawp dropped to the ground and from behind there was a small yelp that told him Neville had fallen over in surprise.

Suddenly, Grawp seemed to spot something in the crowd of students. "Hermy." Hermione's face turned white as the giant opened his arms, beckoning her forward. She stood rooted to the ground. "Hermy and Harry. Come." Harry stared at the gigantic mass of skin and bones before him. It had just said his name. He looked at Hagrid, who beamed back at him. Harry had heard Grawp say Hermione's name before, but never his own.

"What should we do?" Hermione hissed at Harry. He didn't answer. Glancing around, his eyes found Ron, who had backed up next to Dean Thomas. The redhead's eyes were glowing and he looked like he was about to laugh. Malfoy, from even further back, was smirking even harder and Pansy Parkinson had her gaze fixed on Hermione, her eyes sparkling and her lips pulled back to show most of her teeth. Neville was staring at Grawp, his expression horrified and his hands shaking. Harry returned his gaze to Malfoy, who now looked ready to do a jig in front of the whole class on account of their hesitation. Harry turned back to Hermione. He knew what he wanted to do, and she could follow him if she wanted to. Harry advanced towards Grawp slowly, thinking that he was leaving Hermione, but he heard an intake of breath behind him, and her hand slipped into his as she caught up.

Slowly and cautiously, they approached together. When several feet away Grawp swept them into his arms and pulled both of them into a car-crushing hug. Harry smiled at Hermione, whose eyes were the size of jumbo eggs. Most of the students around them burst into waves of applause, all except for several Slytherins, who stood quietly with sour looks on their faces.

Hagrid beamed around at his class. "Any others wan' t' hug em'?" The lesson continued for another half an hour, Hagrid feeding the giants his cake, as well as lecturing about Giants while the students sat on Grawp and Grina's massive legs, listening with enthusiasm. Malfoy was one of few who decided he'd rather sit on the damp earth.

Almost everyone was in good spirits when the group left the forest, waving good-bye to Grawp and Grina. Surprisingly, Hermione was one of few wearing a frown as they left the thick trees and walked in sunlight once more. She, Harry and Ron lagged behind as everyone shouted his or her adieus of "goodbye Professor Hagrid" and "until next time Professor!" Once everyone else had left, Harry and Ron exploded with compliments.

"That was the best lesson I've ever been to." Harry said, almost laughing with glee.

Ron looked even more ecstatic as he said, "it was much more fun than any other class!"

Hagrid looked down at them, lost in his own world. "_Professor_ Hagrid. If I heard right, they actually liked it," he gaped at his own success. Hagrid looked at them with a tremendous smile. "Maybe I'll do another lesson on 'em next time."

Harry and Ron were about to agree that they'd like that very much when Hermione said something that silenced everyone's happy thoughts.

"You should follow the Ministry curriculum from now on, Hagrid."

Hagrid and the two boys stared at her, completely quiet, their minds going ninety miles an hour. Suddenly Harry's mind clicked into place.

"Hermione," he began with a sigh. "There wasn't anything lethally dangerous about that lesson."

Hermione stared at the ground. Ron jabbed at her again.

"Why do you always have to ruin everyone's good fun? First the frog; now this. You have no sense of humor."

Hermione brought her head up, glaring at Ron.

"Ron," she raised her voice several notches. "Any of the students out there could have been seriously hurt! What if we had gotten stepped on, or if Grawp crushed Harry and me when he hugged us that time! And in case of the frog; that wasn't funny, it was just plain mean."

"Hermione;" Harry said softly. "We know that your day hasn't been great, but really, everyone _else_ liked the lesson."

Her voice hushed for several moments as she stared up at him, her expression softened, but her eyes were glistening with tears.

"No, Hermione- I didn't-" Harry looked at her, awestruck.

"Why can't you two side with me once in a while!" the girl accused, interrupting him. "Harry, you think you're always safe, that no one can hurt you. You think that you're immortal or something! Well, you're not, alright! I can see that; and… I'm scared for you- and you too Ron! You were laughing out there!"

"If Alexis were here, she would have laughed too!" Ron yelled.

"Kids! That's enough!" Hagrid tried to calm down the 6th years. "We can-"

"Alexis is funny, she's optimistic, Hermione- she's everything you aren't. You're a dull, boring person!"

"Ron!" Hagrid and Harry chorused at the same time.

"It's true!" Ron exclaimed.

Silence enveloped the group as Ron stood, heaving, as Harry and Hagrid glared at him. Hermione clutched her book bag to her chest, tears streaming down her face.

"Is that what you think of me?" Hermione whispered after several seconds. "Am I really like that?"

"Hermione-" Harry moved his hand to her shoulder, but the girl shoved him away.

"No, I'm asking Ron. Ron?" She murmured, tears streaming down her face. She looked deeply into Ron's fuming eyes.

At first the boy hesitated in answering the question.

"Hermione- I don't want to answer that."

"Ron! Why!" Hermione yelled. "You are so narrow minded; just answer the question." She glared at him through her tears. "Don't make me stand here for an hour! I didn't know you were that dumb. Oh wait!" But Ron interrupted her.

"Yes Hermione! You are a boring, pessimistic, know-it-all with no sense for fun and-"

Hermione didn't wait for him to finish. "I hate you. I- I hate you so much Ron." Turning away from the stunned group, she bent her head and ran across the grass towards the castle.

Standing behind, Hagrid looked down at Ron in disbelief and fury; Harry's face was surprised, watching Hermione's disappearing form.

"What?" Ron glared up at Hagrid. "It- it's _true_!" The boy brushed his growing hair out of his eyes and looked off to the side. "She- it's her fault. It's for the better. Hopefully she doesn't- hopefully she'll never talk to me again." Ron's voice faded out towards the end of his sentence and he stared at his feet.

Harry opened his mouth, but Hagrid spoke first. "You don't mean that Ron. In your heart, you didn't really mean that."

As he concluded his words, Hagrid turned and walked slowly up and into his cabin, leaving the two boys standing behind. Ron was surprised to find his own eyes wet as he and Harry stared at the grass. After several moments, Harry turned and began walking up to the castle by himself, later followed by an abashed and regretful Ron. They didn't exchange a word as they made their way up to the castle.

**A/N: Okay, I tend to do this once in a while. I've found a song that fits this part of the story quite well. I pick lots of random songs (lots of which I don't particularly like, but well, you might like them) and put in sections of the lyrics. For some extra fun, waiting for my next post, you can go check out this song; Up! By Shania Twain. (the entire lyrics are online, just google 'Up Shania Lyrics' and you'll get them.) It seems to fit the moment, and I'll have another chapter coming your way soon!**

_Up-up-up-_

_Can only go up from here_

_Up-up-up-up_

_Where the clouds gonna clear_

_Up-up-up-_

_There's no way but up from here_

_Even something as simple as_

_Forgettin' to fill up on gas_

_There ain't no explanation why-_

_Things like that can make you cry_

_Just gotta learn to have a laugh_

_repeat chorus_

_Oh yeah, yeah, yeah..._

_When everything is goin' wrong_

_Don't worry, it won't last for long_

_Yeah, it's all gonna come around_

_Don't go let it get you down_

_You gotta keep on holding on_

_It's 'bout as bad as it could be_

_Seems everybody's buggin' me_

Like nothing want to go my way- 

_Yeah, it just ain't been my day_

_Nothin's comin' easily_


	8. 8: Resolutions with Reese's

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay guys, I know that some of you found the 1st chapter pretty confusing, and I have to agree myself; it was muy aborrido (very boring). I re-wrote it sometime last week (2-25-05) and it's posted up, so I hope you'll take the chance to re-read it. Tell me if it's any better; I condensed it a lot. Thanks again to Jessie for lots of help!_ Chapter 8: Resolutions with Reese's 

Hermione did not attend Transfiguration, to the confusion of Professor McGonnagal and several other students and when the teacher asked Harry and Ron for information they just shook their heads in morose silence.

Alexis however, did not seem to miss Hermione very much, and continued chattering gaily. Finally, Harry blurted out that neither of them were in anything that you could call a good mood, and that Ron didn't have enough of a brain; so he wouldn't be able to say anything intelligent even if he was in the mood to talk. Ron then picked up his project and walked quietly to another table, where he worked alone for the rest of the period, leaving Alexis confused and Harry fuming in his seat.

When Alexis tried to coax more out of Harry, all she got was a glare and a cold shoulder. With a huff she joined Lavender and Parvati across the room.

……………………………

At dinner time, Alexis made it clear that she didn't really want to eat with Harry and Ron, and let the two boys go off to the Great Hall on their own, though it was obvious that they didn't really want to talk to each other either. The girl made her way up to the Gryffindor common room, where she knew that she had plenty of candy stashed away.

……………………………………

Upstairs, Hermione lay on her bed with the covers up to her neck, clutching a roll of toilet paper in her right hand. Her eyes were wet; but she had stopped crying about a half hour before. On the nightstand was about half the roll of paper, crumpled and damp.

The girl shifted in bed to hug her pillow but froze as Alexis burst through the door of the dormitory. Hermione stared at the wall with glassy eyes as Alexis rummaged through her trunk. Alexis quickly found what she was looking for; a bag of peanut butter cups, and headed for the door. At the last minute, she turned around.

"Hermione?" She stuck a Reese's in her mouth. "You awake?"

"Mmhmm.." Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to remember how Ron had compared her to Alexis during their argument.

"Why weren't you in Transfiguration?" Alexis leaned against her dresser. "McGonnagal missed you. Apparently you don't skip often?"

Hermione sniffed and placed her roll of toilet paper on the nightstand, burying her face in the soft feather down of her pillow.

"Are you going to look at me Hermione?" Alexis fixed her hair in the mirror- not that it needed to be fixed. "I know that we haven't gotten off to such a good start- but you know-" Alexis walked over and slouched against one of the four posts that supported Hermione's bed drapes. "I don't mean to pry…"

At this Hermione grabbed her toilet paper back from the nightstand and tore off a large piece, wiping her eyes. "I don't want to talk to _you_ about it. Go away." She sniffed.

"You don't have to be _rude_." Alexis unwrapped another peanut butter cup. "I didn't do anything."

"I _said,"_ Hermione hiccupped into her toilet paper, "go _away_."

"Fine!" Alexis huffed and walked towards the door. "I just wanted to help. You could tell me what's wrong and-"

"Ron is obsessed with-" Hermione interrupted Alexis loudly. But the rest of her words were indistinguishable from her sobs. Hermione buried her head in her pillow as her whole body shook.

Alexis turned around, surprised. "Wait- what?" She moved over and stood by Hermione's bed.

"Ron is obsessed with YOU!" Hermione screamed into her pillow. She sobbed harder and harder, finally pushing herself up on her elbows so that she could breathe. She grabbed another string of toilet paper and cried into it. "He's liked me forever! It was so obvious! And this year I finally wanted to do something about it, and you _ruined everything_!"

"Hermione- I didn't know-" Alexis sat down on the bed. "Oh crap."

"He's turned into such a retard!" Hermione cried through her hiccups. "He keeps comparing me to you, and it's obvious that you two have so much more in common and-" Alexis leaned down and put her arms around Hermione. She had begun to cry too.

"Oh God, I'm sorry." She buried her face in Hermione's hair. "I had no idea..."

"I thought everything would be perfect." Hermione sobbed into Alexis' shoulder. "He loved me- but then I wrecked things when I went off with Viktor- and- and- now he doesn't care anymore."

They sat together and cried for several minutes, each of them not knowing what to say. After quite a bit of thinking, Alexis spoke.

"I- I really thought that you liked Harry- I really did." She stroked Hermione's hair. "You got really- I don't know- you didn't like how I talked about him last night. Or maybe it was just what I said about Ron." She sniffed.

"I- I've- Harry and I are just friends..." Hermione used her already damp tissue to try and wipe her eyes once more. "He'd never consider me." She blew her nose and pulled away from Alexis, laying her head back down on the pillow. Alexis followed suite and lay down facing Hermione's back.

"Look-" Alexis began after a few silent moments. "I'll- I'll just forget about Ron. It'll be- it'll be really easy for me to just choose some other person. I'll- I can change guys- really." Alexis sniffed. "You were here first. You get first dibs."

"No, you can't-" Hermione felt her eyes water once more.

"Hermione, you deserve Ron." Alexis cut her off. "I'll- If I make it clear that I don't like him- then he'll be all yours."

"But I don't want him!" Hermione rolled over, sniffing. Her voice was honest. "I don't ever want to be in a relationship with someone who called me- he called me _boring_ Alexis! And- and- he said-" Hermione burst into tears once more. "I don't want to like him anymore."

Alexis stared at Hermione's curled up form, surprised. "I- I-" She put an arm around Hermione's shoulders. "If he said that-" she inhaled. "If he said that, then I don't want him either."

At these words Hermione looked up, her face tear-streaked. "You- you don't have to-"

"Yes I do. If he said something like that to my friend and hasn't tried to apologize, then- then I have to." Alexis sniffed and smiled weakly. "We'll form a pact. An 'I-Will-Move-On-From-Ronald club.'" Hermione giggled at this.

"So, we just, we decide that neither of us would get involved with him without the other's consent- or something like that?"

"Yeah- let's do an oath- here- how about- 'I will not get involved with or try to move in that direction with Ron Weasley while this club is still ongoing.'"

"Okay, that sounds good." So, with Hermione's consent, both girls recited the oath and then shook hands at the end, grinning.

"Thank you." Hermione whispered after a while.

"Want a Reese's?"

"Alright."

And with those words a new friendship was born.

……………………………

Fifteen or so minutes later, Harry and Ron came up to the Gryffindor Common room from dinner. Ron was looking anxious, but Harry carried himself with a satisfied expression. He smirked slightly as Ron nervously ran his hand through his hair.

"What am I supposed to_ say_, Harry?" Ron began pacing as Harry plopped down in an armchair. "Come on, Harry! Please, help me a bit. You're the one who's so good at this kind of stuff."

"We aren't technically back on speaking terms yet." Harry pulled out a bit of parchment and his writing supplies.

Ron stared at Harry for another several moments, but when the other boy refused to make eye contact, he returned to his pacing.

At that moment, Hermione and Alexis appeared at the bottom of the girls' dormitory staircase. They had both changed out of their school uniforms, and they glanced somewhat nervously at each other when they saw Ron's anxious state.

"Hermione-" he walked over to her and hugged her rather timidly. "I, uh, I'm sorry..."

"What he means-" Harry got to his feet and stretched. "Is that he's been a pea-brained dodo bird, and he never meant anything that he said." Harry walked over and smiled at Hermione. "And believe me, he really means it; he may not be smart enough to put it in words, but-"

"Hey!" Ron punched his friend in the shoulder. "But I see we're on speaking terms again, eh?" Harry grinned at Ron as well.

"And I guess I should apologize too- for letting you get verbally pummeled." Harry hugged Hermione.

"You're forgiven," Hermione smiled weakly at her friends.

"But if you ever do it again, you're screwed." Alexis added her word. "You'll be messing with me!" She faked a punch at Ron's face and then set out to the couch. "What are you working on Harry?"

"I see that you two are getting to be better friends." Harry smiled as he and the rest joined Alexis in front of the fire.

"Like we haven't been!" Hermione gasped and grinned, taking the seat beside Alexis on the couch.

Alexis grinned as well, grabbing Harry's sheet of parchment that he'd been writing on before they came down.

"Quidditch tryouts! Oh yeah: you're the captain. When are they?" Alexis studied the paper.

"That's what I'm having trouble with." Harry yanked the parchment back from Alexis. "If you're going to try out I can't let you see that. It's a plan of what I'm going to have you guys do."

"Why are you having trouble?" Hermione curled up her feet under her and picked up a magazine from the coffee table, flipping through it.

"Ravenclaw is having there's on Tuesday night, and Slytherin has tomorrow _and_ Friday. That's the problem with being late at doing this; there aren't any slots open. We need a good chunk of time." Harry sighed and stared at the paper.

"What about this weekend?" Alexis said, leaning over to try and read the parchment for a second time.

"Hey!" Harry pulled his work away and bit his thumbnail. "But I guess that we _could_ do it on Saturday."

"But we've got so much homework for the weekend already!" Ron groaned. "And it's only Tuesday!"

"Hey, we have all Sunday." Alexis said, grumpy that Harry wouldn't let her see the paper.

"Alright, I guess that it's Saturday then!" Harry folded up his parchment. "Oh, and Hermione- Hedwig delivered this to me when Ron and I were coming upstairs from dinner." He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to his friend. "It's from Hagrid."

Hermione ripped the envelope open and pulled out a folded sheet of parchment. She read it aloud:

"Hermione,

You were right about Grawp. Professor Dumbledore's sent me an owl saying he had to put me on probation."

At this point the handwriting became shakier and less legible, but the letter still continued.

"He's a great man, Dumbledore, but the Ministry still has control over who gets put on probation. Fudge found out about my lesson from one of the students, they didn't say which. I shoulda told you and Harry and Ron about what my lessons would be. I will in the future, so that I won't do anything else stupid. Grawp can be dangerous, and you were right, someone coulda been hurt. If you want to come down to me hut later tomorrow afternoon it would be a real help.

Hagrid"

Alexis read the few words over Hermione's shoulder and interrupted the awkward silence that followed. "So," she said, flipping her highlighted hair. "Who's this Grawp? Some relative of Sirius Black?"

Both Ron and Hermione shot nervous glances at Harry, Hermione plastering a huge fake grin on her face, trying to act like Alexis's reference was just a random joke. This uncomfortable moment was soon overcome and they spent the next hour retelling the visits with Grawp the previous year while decorating a gigantic poster displaying the Quidditch tryout times.


	9. 9: The Secret to Muggle Defense

AN: Hey everyone! I'm sorry that I've taken so much longer than usual to get my chapter up.  but I spent spring break in Switzerland, with no internet, and the jetlag is evil.. to answer your question Sam, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are a kind of American chocolate; peanut butter (extra sugary peanut butter) surrounded in chocolate like a cup, with a layer of chocolate over top, in a paper cup-like wrapper. They are VERY good. The exact kind of thing that Alexis (major candy fan) would have her friends in the US send to her once in a while. I hope that answered your question Sam, and if anyone else has any questions about the story, I totally don't mind you asking them in your reviews. It makes posting more exciting. 

**Chapter 9:The Secret to Muggle Defense**

On Friday morning at 10:00 A.M. the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs filed into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom for their first lesson. Everyone was excited about meeting the new teacher. They were all confused however, when they found no desks in the classroom, but a large quantity of mats placed all around the room. There was a huge clear plastic container at the front of the room that looked like it held several dozen white robes. Harry and his friends looked around with awe. Hermione and Alexis were both wearing spaghetti-strap tanks and loose, baggy, gray sweatpants. Harry had donned a dark blue, Old Navy sweatshirt that he had received as a hand-me-down from Dudley. Standing next to him, Ron had pulled on an old T-shirt and red basketball shorts.

Still confused, but happy they did not have to wear their uniforms, the group of four grabbed mats and sat down in a square shape near Neville and Dean. For the first time since they had entered Harry heard music playing in the background. It sounded oriental. When he pointed this out to the others Alexis' face lit up in understanding.

"Oh my God!" She gasped. "It's so obvious! Why didn't I think of it!" She looked down at her clothes. "If I'd have known I would have brought my own robe from home!"

The other three looked at her, having no idea where the exclamation was headed.

At that moment the room seemed to quiet down considerably. Harry looked around at his fellow students and realized that their eyes were all focused in the same direction. Following their gaze he saw that a man had seated himself at the front of the room on a mat that was larger than the ones everyone else was sitting on. What amazed Harry was that he had entered silently and no one had noticed that he was there.

"How'd he get in here?" Harry whispered to Hermione, but she shushed him without taking her eyes off the mysterious teacher. Harry quieted and followed her example. This must be professor Ronin, the teacher Dumbledore had been talking about. The man was definitely Asian in race, wearing a snow-white robe with a black belt strung around his waste and tied at the front. His salt and pepper hair was pulled back into a tight bun at the back of his head and he looked very serious as he sat cross-legged in front of the students. There was a strong and wise tone in his voice when he spoke.

"In this class, we will be studying Karate, an ancient form of Japanese muggle defense. Most of you, when I say muggle, think of something inefficient and unworthy of your attention. I believe that you are wrong and if you decide to contradict me, you may leave at this time." Professor Ronin paused and his eyes swept the faces of his silent crowd. His voice was clear, loud, and serious, echoing slightly off the stone walls of the chamber. Though several of the students had shifted on their mats, none of them seemed to want to leave. However, they did all seem slightly uneasy.

Next to Harry, Hermione raised her hand high into the air. Ronin pointed towards her, asking for her to state her name before she asked the question. "Hermione Granger," she said briskly. "Does this mean that we aren't going to be doing any magic in the class? That we'll be learning um... Karate all year long?"

Ronin watched her as she said this. And seemed to be lost in thought for several seconds after she finished.

"Yes Miss Granger," he replied slowly. "You and your fellow students will be studying muggle defense for the rest of the year." He paused and looked around the room for more questions. When there were none he continued. "Now, I will proceed to talk of the martial arts while you take notes. After this class, all sessions will be practical and we will be learning different ways of blocking and attacking an opponent." There was a scramble for quills and parchment and several excited murmurs about the classes to come as Ronin returned to his solemn lecture.

"'Kara' means 'empty' in Japanese, while 'te' means 'hand'. 'Karate-do' means 'The Way of the Empty Hand'. In this room you will learn to defend yourself using nothing but your body. No wand, no weapon. Karate's purpose is not to win, the purpose is to defend, and to defend only. To study this branch of the martial arts the student must accomplish perfect balance, self-control, and self-discipline. These are characteristics that many of you are lacking, but you must all try your best and practice your hardest."

Professor Ronin continued the class for the next hour in the same manner, lecturing them on the history and use of karate while they scribbled as fast as they could. Quills scratched and flashed across paper as he talked about Japan and other Asian countries where the martial art had originated. Everyone was disappointed when the class finally came to an end. They had thoroughly enjoyed the speech. It was much more interesting than Professor Binns' way of addressing the class, for Ronin would stop every once in a while for questions. The new teacher put life into his talk, varying pitch and tone as he walked around the room, reading his student's writing over their backs.

Alexis was one of the few in the class who knew anything about Karate. She answered questions that Ronin asked the class while Ron stared open mouthed at the information that poured out of her mouth. Harry tried not to grin at Hermione, who looked disgruntled at the thought of not being the best. Though she was muggleborn, Hermione didn't know anything about karate. She had never taken interest in defense classes.

In the last ten minutes of class, Ronin handed each student a white

robe from the plastic container and directed them to bring it to class every day for the rest of the year. He then assigned them a scroll of parchment on the lecture and dismissed them several minutes early.

Harry, Ron and Hermione walked out of the classroom dazed and speechless while Alexis chattered nonstop about how interesting the lesson had been. But Ron stopped her jabbering in mid sentence as they walked through the entrance hall.

"How did you know all that stuff!" The other two seemed to come out of their daze and turned to Alexis as well. The girl ran her fingers through her hair and pushed the Great Hall door open for all of them.

"My sister, err, wanted me to take classes. I've been taking them for three years." She seemed hesitant when she said this and quickly increased her walking pace, moving ahead of the others to take a seat at the Gryffindor table. Ron, skipped to catch up with her and the others followed suite, wanting to know more.

Ron seated himself next to Alexis, who avoided his gaze. She busied herself pouring pumpkin juice from the pitcher into her goblet. There was several moments of silence as Alexis filled her plate with food. Ron stared at her expectantly, his plate and goblet untouched. As the others sat down across from the two he finally broke the silence.

"Why?" He asked.

Alexis finally looked up from her turkey sandwich.

"Why would you want to know. It isn't important."

"I- Well- why won't you tell us?"

She then placed down her food and pushed herself back from the table.

"I'll go get the lemonade." With this she walked over to the Ravenclaw table and leaned over to talk to a bunch of seventh years.

Ron stared after her. "Lemonade? Hogwarts serves lemonade?" He continued to look after Alexis till Hermione reached over and slapped his wrist.

"You're being too intrusive Ron. It was obvious she didn't want to talk to you about it." Ron turned his eyes to Hermione with the same blank expression.

"Huh?" He said dumbfoundedly.

"You are so shallow." Hermione shot at him as she returned to her green beans. "It doesn't really matter, does it?"

Harry looked from Hermione to Ron and then to Alexis, who was still at the Ravenclaw table. He obviously didn't understand why Hermione thought Ron was being shallow.

"He has a point you know," Harry defended the read head. "Hogwarts doesn't serve Lemonade." At this Hermione gave an exasperated sigh and pushed her chair away from the table.

"Well, I'm off to the Library." She grabbed a roll and carried it with her as she left the boys and the rest of her food behind.

Harry groaned, _why did she have to leave too_? "This is stupid," he voiced out loud. "Are we just thick or is it them that have weird complex minds to confusing for _anyone_ to understand?"

Ron shrugged. "All I know is that I am _not_ shallow, how Hermione likes to put it." He reached over and took Alexis's unfinished sandwich, cutting off the bitten part and beginning to eat the rest.

"That reminds me," Harry said, taking another bite of his roll. "We should tell Alexis that Hermione's birthday is the 19th. Maybe we can all go to Hogsmede this weekend and get her a present."

Ron grinned. "Yeah, we could get her something together."

Just then someone pulled out the chair next to Ron and sat down. Harry glanced at the person and groaned inwardly. Luna Lovegood had curled he arm around Ron's wrist, snaking over his bent elbow, which was on the table. Ron looked sideways at the girl in her purple mushroom earrings and really groaned.

"Hello Ronald," Luna said, ignoring Harry and not noticing Ron's obvious look of great disgust. She massaged Ron's wrist with he thump. "I see you all over the halls but you always seem busy. Are you always drowned in work?" She put on a concerned expression.

Ron stared at her, revulsion all over his face. "No," he said with his mouth full.

Luna sighed. "Don't talk with your mouth full Ronald, it's impolite." Ron gulped and stared at her. Harry laughed.

"Hermione tells him that enough!" Harry said under his breath, just to be ignored.

Luna just smiled and continued. "I was wondering if we could get together sometime."

Ron looked alarmed. Harry politely took the pitture of pumpkin juice and placed it between himself and the other two, trying hard to hide his face, which was in danger of cracking into an overly large grin.

"You know," Luna said to Ron as she curled a wave of hair around the index finger of her free hand. "Just you and me, the lake, the stars." She moved closer and put her cheek against the side of his hand, her face inches from his. Ron gave a large fake sneeze and pulled his arm away from Luna, dropping the sandwich and putting his hands over his nose and mouth.

"I've got to go get a tissue." Ron excused himself. "Come with me Harry?" Harry followed Ron to the Boy's bathroom, laughing all the way.

"It isn't funny you know." Ron glared at Harry. Harry couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Walking up to a mirror he tried hard to flatten his hair.

"I always knew there was something between the two of you." Harry leaned against a stall door and studied himself in the mirror.

"Oh yeah." Ron said huffily, leaning against a sink. "Well, whatever's going on is in her head alone."

"She wanted to go to the lake in the moonlight, Ron. She's serious about you."

Ron snorted.

"Maybe you should go out with her," Harry continued. "It might work out, you never know. I mean, she isn't all _that_ bad." Ron raised his hand high as if to slap Harry.

"Okay, okay." Harry surrendered. "Comon, let's go finish our food. She'll have left by now."

After lunch Ron and Harry ventured outside onto the grounds. Hermione was probably still at the library and as much as they knew, would spend the whole afternoon there and though they tried to find her, Alexis was nowhere to be seen. She had left the hall with the seventh years and the boys guessed she was now doing homework in the common room.

Sighing, Ron dropped himself heavily under the beech tree at the edge of the lake. Harry walked along the rocky shore, stooping to pick up several smooth and flat stones, which he stuffed into the pockets of his robes.

"I don't know what offended Alexis so much!" Ron exclaimed, glaring at one of beech tree's uncovered roots. "All I asked was why her sister wanted her to take muggle defense. I don't see how that's such a touchy subject." Ron looked down at his hands.

Harry turned away from the lake to watch Ron, his face thoughtful. He then moved back to the edge of the water, skipping one of his rocks across the glistening surface. Harry brushed his bangs aside with the back of his hand, leaving a wet streak across his forehead. Still looking out over the water he began to speak.

"I don't know," he said. "I've read about New York. It's a huge city. Her sister might have been scared of Alexis getting mugged." With this Harry threw another rock across the lake and handed one to Ron as the other boy joined him at the edge of the water.

Ron threw it and sighed again when he couldn't get it to skip. "I guess that could be it. But really; if her sister was scared for her safety then why didn't she just say so?"

At this point Hermione came walking across the lawn towards them. Waving, she raised her voice so that they could here. "Are you two still talking about that karate thing?"

"Oh look, she's come back from the Library." Ron said somewhat sulkily. "What fun."

Hermione made a face at Ron and walked over into the shade of the tree.

"So, were you?" She ripped a leaf from the beech tree and began shredding strips from between the veins with her fingernails.

Harry shrugged at the girl's question and threw the last of his rocks into the lake.

"It's her business what she wants to tell you, you know." Hermione said quietly, looking across the sparkling water as it lapped the shore. She then walked several feet away to watch a dragonfly on a nearby boulder.

Harry sighed, wiping his wet hands on his robes. "We should try to get started on that martial arts essay."

Ron grinned. "You're getting to be too much like Hermione," he said jokingly. "Turning into a total homework freak!"

At these words Harry opened his mouth wide, letting his eyes expand in a surprised expression. Hermione turned around and glared at Ron.

"Is that supposed to be a bad thing?" She demanded, moving back over to the two boys. They ignored her.

"I am _not_!" Harry exclaimed, jokingly.

Hermione turned her attention back to Harry. "I can't believe you just said that." She gave him a playful shove, which pushed him several feet to his left, leaving him standing in several inches of clear pond water.

Harry looked down at his feet as he felt cold water soak through his trainers, washing over his socks. Next to him, Ron bent in half with silent laughter.

"Well _I_ can't believe you just did _that_." Harry said. He kicked hard at the shallow water, splashing the all three of them from head to toe. Now they were all laughing outright as Harry tried to wipe off his dripping glasses. Ron stooped low, cupping his hands and bringing up more water to throw at Hermione. Seeing, his intentions, the girl turned and tripped headfirst into Harry, sending the two of them reeling into the pond.

"Arghhh!" Harry jumped up as quickly as possible.

"I am _so_ sorry." Hermione pulled herself out of the water, hanging on Harry's arm as she stabilized herself. "Oh- aww-" The girl moved out of the water and tried to squeeze the water from her soaked sweatpants. "I'm really sorry Harry."

"That's alright." Harry pulled his sweatshirt over his head to reveal a white t-shirt. "It wasn't your fault. Ron- on the other hand." Harry grinned. He pulled off a shoe and dipped it into the water, filling it.

"You wouldn't dare-" Ron finished just as he got a shoeful of water in the face. "Aww- that's disgusting. Harry-" But Harry just grinned and filled the shoe again, this time aiming at Hermione.

"Harry! Don't!" The girl ran off towards the castle, glancing backward as she went.

Harry followed Hermione to the castle, throwing the water in his shoe at her but missing by several feet. Ron sprinted after them, having filled his cupped hands with water, but the water trickled out long before he got anywhere near enough to get them wet. Once they reached the castle the threesome continued up to the Gryffindor common room, laughing and dripping all over the marble staircase.

"Look at how wet I am," Ron said, his voice loud and happy. He stomped his feet hard on the marble tiles, and leaving wet marks as his steps echoed through the hallway. Harry walked in his drenched socks, holding his dripping trainers far out at his side and trying not to get his sweats and t-shirt any wetter. He his sweatshirt was draped over one of his arms.

Ron pulled off his shoes as well, grabbing Hermione's arm and pulling her as he slid back and forth across the slippery corridor floor.

"Don't!" the girl said, prying Ron's fingers loose. "We'll get in trouble if anyone finds out. Filch hates the floor being wet anyways. He'll end up considering sock sailing a dangerous thing that we aren't allowed to do between corridors."

Ron stared at Hermione. "Hermione- party pooper," he said as he ran and slid across the hall once more, almost running into the wall but catching himself just in time.

Hermione quickly remembered what Ron had said to her in front of Hagrid's cabin almost a week before. She gave in.

"Oh I guess. Wait for me," the girl said, bending down to untie her own shoes. When she had successfully untangled the laces and pulled them off she tied the strings together and slung them over her shoulder. Laughing, she grabbed one of both Harry and Ron's hands and the threesome pulled each other through the halls. They slid, dripping, all the way through the 4th floor corridor, where their smiling stopped just as they ran into the arms of Filch, the castle's caretaker.

Twenty minutes later the trio entered the Gryffindor Common Room, having dried, but also been thoroughly shaken.

They ran into Alexis, who was sitting, as Harry had predicted, doing homework, by the fire. She had changed from her Defense clothes into a very ratty, though acceptable, pair of jeans and a graying NYU sweatshirt, whatever NYU stood for. When they neared her seat she lifted her head and smiled, obviously putting everything that had been said about Karate behind them. Her expression changed when she saw the looks on their faces.

"What's wrong?" She asked Ron, who looked as if his eyes would never return to their usual size.

He shuddered and took a seat next to her on the couch. He placed his elbows on his knees and leaned forward, burying his head in his hands. Harry threw himself onto the floor in front of the fire, placing his shoes near the heat to dry as Hermione took the nearest armchair. Ron sighed again as Alexis looked around at the rest of them questioningly.

"All three of us just landed in detention with Filch. We have to report to his office at three, that's in twenty minutes." Ron took his face out of his hands and leaned back on the stuffed armrest of the couch, looking tiered. Alexis moved her eyes from Ron to Harry, who was staring into the fire but she finally focused on Hermione, who still looked utterly shocked.

"I don't believe it," she said, "not you too Hermione?"

Hermione sighed. "We were being stupid," she admitted, "We skated in the hall and got the whole place soaking wet." Hermione flipped her head upside down and quickly refastened her pony-tail holder. "I lost control. I should have thought before I acted."

"It wasn't your fault Hermione."

"Yes it was," Hermione stabbed back. "I usually keep you and Ron out of trouble, but this time I acted immature. I should have seen it coming."

Ron let out a sigh. "Why do you always have to act so frigging better than the rest of us Hermione? We know you wanted to have fun just as much as we did."

Harry stared at his hands, silently agreeing with Ron but not wanting to say so in front of Hermione.

The girl glared at Ron. "I do not!" Hermione looked like she was about to erupt. Alexis saw this as an excellent time to get up.

"Look," she said to Hermione and Ron. "Don't start throwing daggers at each other over one comment. I'd take one of you out of the room, but I have detention with Snape and I'll be late if I take any longer."

Ron tore his eyes away from Hermione long enough to shout "See you at dinner!" to Alexis as she disappeared through the portrait hole, then he resumed his position glaring at Hermione.

Harry shot a glance at his watch, which he had bought in Diagon Alley at the end of the summer holiday. "We ought to go too, don't want to be late." With this he fastened himself a firm grip on Ron's wrist and tugged him out of his chair, breaking the death rays between Hermione and him. The girl got up as well, still looking angry and following them from the common room.

The two sulked on either side of Harry all the way to Filch's office, which took them a good ten minutes to get to. Once they arrived they found it locked and deserted. Ron grumbled something about 'setting a date and not coming himself' and sat down on the hard corridor floor. Hermione took a seat huffily next to Ron, crossing her arms and glaring at the wall opposite.

Harry dropped himself on Ron's other side, silently hating both of them for starting a fight. He really didn't want to have detention now. They'd probably end up having to clean something.

"I don't get it." Ron burst out. "You think you're so much better, so much more mature."

Hermione shot a sideways glance at him, grinding her teeth. "Everything I said was totally true Ron."

Harry glared at the two of them, bickering away. "Can you guys just cool it?"

Ron looked at Harry. "No, we can't," he said forcefully. "She's calling us idiots, don't you get it? She thinks she's so-"

"Will you just shut the f up, Ron?"

All three students leaned against the wall, stiff and totally shocked at what Hermione had just said. Hermione herself looked near tears and Ron stared at his hands.

"Look, Hermione, I-"

"Don't"

Ron tried to say something but Hermione stopped him. Her voice shook. The three sat still and quiet for several minutes until the silence was broken by Filch's shuffling footsteps coming their way.

Harry quickly got to his feet and dusted himself off, the others following his example. They stood in a group, still feeling shocked and nervously awaiting the arrival of their detention master. When Argus Filch finally rounded the corner they were surprised to see that he had Alexis in tow.

Alexis walked up to them and stood next to Hermione as everyone else stared at her. "Snape didn't have anything for me to do. I got 're-positioned,'" she whispered as Filch unlocked his door. He returned with four buckets of soapy water and several brushes and sponges all placed on a metal cart. Alexis looked extremely unhappy when she saw the materials but none of the other three students said anything. Filch began to speak.

"This young lady," he said, jabbing his finger in Alexis's direction. She glared back at him. "Will be joining the three of you to scrub the fourth floor hallway." Alexis groaned but the others just looked at their feet. Filch ignored their reactions. "You aren't to use magic other than to refill the water buckets or to conjure more soap. You're not going to dinner until the job is done. If I come back, and you've left a grimy mess; then the headmaster will have to think of something for you to do during your free-time for the next month. Understand?" They all nodded simultaneously except for Alexis, who glared at one of the soapy buckets. When Filch was done he returned to his office. As soon as he disappeared from view Hermione grabbed both Alexis's wrist and one end of the cart, moving briskly along the corridor. Alexis followed her, confused. She sent a backwards look at Ron and Harry, but the two boys seemed to be refusing to look anywhere other than their feet.

Because of their fast pace, Hermione and Alexis arrived several minutes before the other two, at which time Hermione grabbed a brush and quickly began angrily scrubbing the corridor floor. Alexis stood silently, watching Hermione clean with her arms crossed.

"I don't get it," she said after several moments of silence from both of them. "Why'd you pull me away like that? I've barely talked to Ron and Harry all day.." Alexis stopped when she realized that Hermione had begun to cry. "What's wrong?" she said, concerned and kneeled down beside Hermione, who was still attempting to brush all the color out of the hard, stone floor.

Hermione dropped the brush and sat on her heels, tears streaming down her face. "I-I" she began, sobbing harder than ever. "I swore at Ron. I feel so awful." Crying into Alexis's shoulder she tried to explain. "He just gets me so frustrated sometimes. Now I feel embarrassed for coming out at him like that." Hiccupping, Hermione pulled her uniform tie out from under her robes and used it to wipe her eyes. "I don't know what's gotten into me lately. I just- I just can't handle it when he keeps throwing words at me.. Especially- especially when other people are there.." Alexis shushed her, pulling her close and letting her recuperate. Hermione sniffed and continued, "I never used to fight so much with him. It just used to be a bit of bickering here and there.."

"Is it because you still like him?" Alexis whispered into Hermione's ear. The girl hiccupped.

"I- I-"

"It's alright."

"No, Alexis, it really isn't. We had that agreement, didn't we? We both said that we'd never make any move towards him or show that we liked him while the other still felt the same way." Hermione hiccupped.

"You haven't broken it then." Alexis murmured into Hermione's ear. "And look, he'll forgive you, Hermione. He owes you, right?"

Hermione's lips twitched in a slight smile as she sniffed.

"Thanks."

"It's fine." Alexis pulled a two brushes and a bucket from the cart and separated herself from Hermione. "Now let's get to scrubbing; you don't want them to think we're lazy, do you?" She joked. Hermione smiled as well and wiped her eyes.

"I guess so."

They began to work as if the had been scrubbing for the past ten minutes, Alexis sending a weak smile towards Harry and Ron as the two rounded the corner, but not saying anything, thinking that they should best keep quiet; for Hermione's sake.

If the boys could sense a change of mood in Alexis they did not mention it, silently getting to work on their own parts of the floor. The quiet was only once broken by Ron, who, obviously trying to cheer Hermione up, threw a rag in the girl's direction, expecting her to smile and throw it back. Hermione ignored the rag and continued her scrubbing, though her eyes became wetter and her face more blotchy at his unsuccessful attempt. Feeling embarrassed, Ron then pushed himself up from the floor to get the rag, almost running to the other side of the corridor and back to retrieve it. No one said anything for the few hours that followed, by which they had finished scrubbing.

"Well, I think we're done," Harry said to the other three, trying to push through the awkwardness that seemed to be choking all of them. Alexis gave a weak smile but Hermione and Ron wordlessly began putting away their cleaning supplies. Harry looked around at the spotless corridor and heaved a sigh of relief. He rotated to crack his back, let out his breath slowly after he heard the satisfying crunch. Just at that time the distant clanging of the dinner bell sounded, calling everyone in the castle for supper. Alexis jumped with surprise, slopping dirty water down her front. Harry laughed but stopped immediately when he saw the pained expressions on Ron and Hermione's faces. Alexis sighed and pointed her wand at herself, muttering a quick cleansing spell to rid her sweatshirt of the water. She then walked over to Hermione and put a hand on her shoulder, smiling reassuringly.

"Why don't you and Ron take the cart back and leave it in front of Filch's office?" she said, sending a grin in Ron's direction as she gave Hermione a quick one-armed hug. "Harry and I will go and save some seats in the Great Hall."

Hermione gave Alexis a look that said there was nothing she'd rather not do, but it was already too late, for Alexis had given Harry a light tug on the arm and they were both walking away.

Harry looked at the ground as he walked towards the Great Hall with Alexis, feeling exposed. After several long moments he decided to break the silence.

"Did she tell you what happened?" he asked, glancing up from the floor and stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah." Alexis bit her lip. "Well, not the whole thing; what did she say?"

"The "f" word." Harry's face cracked into a grin. "Yeah, I know," He added when Alexis's mouth opened in awe. "You wouldn't think that she'd say that-"

"No wonder she was so upset. Saying that to the guy-" Alexis cut off.

"What?"

"Nothing." Alexis couldn't hold back her grin. "I still can't believe she'd say that though."

"Wait- there's something that I'm not supposed to know here-" Harry smiled. "Tell me. Really."

"You wouldn't understand."

Harry looked at her, his brow furrowed in frustration. "Alexis, I'm not that stupid. Why are you smiling?" Alexis bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"You are so dense Harry! So if I told you- then- I dunno. I'll talk to you later." With this Alexis opened the doors to the Great Hall and walked ahead of Harry to take a seat at the Gryffindor table next to Lavender and Parvati.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Harry shouted at her back, but she was out of earshot.

Out of nowhere, Harry immediately became distracted by Ginny who was a nervous wreck about quidditch tryouts, which were to be held a week from Saturday.

"I know that I tried out for seeker when you weren't playing last year, but I just need to know how tryouts are going to be different." Ginny was wringing her hands hysterically and walking backwards in front of Harry, making their trip to the Gryffindor table frustratingly slow.

"Ginny," Harry tried to reassure his best friend's sister. "You'll do fine. I bet there isn't going to be much competition." Harry took a seat at the dinner table and began helping himself to Shepard's pie, Ginny standing at his shoulder. "I've already seen that you're an excellent flier and that you work well with the team." Ginny looked like she wanted to start begging Harry on her knees to tell her she was on the team, but at that moment Dean Thomas, her boyfriend for several months, interrupted their conversation.

"Ginny," he said looking concerned. "Are you worried about quidditch tryouts again?" He kissed her on the cheek and steered her away to the other end of the table to sit with himself, Seamus, Parvati, Lavender, Alexis and several other people Harry did not know. Before he left he whispered something to Harry. "You will put her on the team, won't you?" Harry winced, knowing Dean didn't mean it as a threat, even if it did come out like one. Harry knew there was a ninety percent chance that Ginny was already on the team, all she had to do was show up at tryouts.

He had just begun to eat when Ron and Hermione entered the Hall, both of them looking refreshed. It was obvious that their friendship had been renewed. They strode up to him, Hermione looking relaxed and Ron wearing a grin of huge proportions.

"Well," Hermione beamed at Harry without sitting down. Ron took a seat across from Harry. "We've made up."

Harry smiled back at her. "That's great. I knew you would."

Hermione's smile widened to show almost all of her teeth. "I'm going to go sit with Alexis, do you mind?"

"Of course not." Harry wondered why she would ask such a question. Hermione walked off with a wave to the two boys, sitting between Alexis and Parvai Patil. Harry bent over his food, marveling at how Ron and Hermione could be biting each other's heads off one second and be totally tranquil the next. He bit off a roll and chewed, gazing into space, still trying to figure out what Alexis had said.

Ron gave an obvious cough from the other side of the table and Harry looked up, having forgotten that the redhead was still there.

"What?" Harry asked, knowing Ron had coughed to get his attention.

"Hermione hugged me when we were bringing the cart back." He sighed and stared into space.

"So?" Harry wasn't catching Ron's radar.

Ron looked at Harry, frustrated. "Isn't it obvious that she's starting to feel differently about me? I've paid extra attention to her since third year and she's actually beginning to understand that we're made for each other."

Harry stared at Ron. He had thought that Ron had feelings for Hermione, but that had been the year before. "What about Alexis?" Harry voiced his confusion, talking in a hushed voice so that only Ron could hear him.

"Alexis!" Ron seemed utterly surprised.

"Yeah, you said she was- well- that she was "hot" on the first day of school.."

"No.." Ron seemed to think very hard before continuing his answer. "Alexis is.. Alexis _is_ hot. That's true. But she's way too short for me. I mean, she's probably a whole foot shorter." Ron pushed his beans around on his plate. "I bet she has guys chasing after her all the time and she'll probably be asked out any day now. That's the sort of girl everyone else gets jealous of, you know. But, Hermione, wow, she's a whole 'nother universe, except no one can tell. It's like she's sexy but doesn't know it.." Ron propped his head up on his hand, still pushing his beans around. "And, well, she's real fiery, you know? And I dunno- her temper turns me on."

"I don't think Hermione likes fighting with you," Harry stated the obvious. "She gets pretty upset."

"Yeah!" Ron seemed quickly alert. "That could be another reason that she likes me! I mean, when she fights with you, she doesn't get upset- does she?"

"When's the last time that we had a major argument?"

"You have a good point, but I still think that- well- I mean, my parents have their little quarrels; what married folk don't!"

"So, you're saying that Hermione treats you like you're married?"

"Harry- you know what I mean." Ron returned to his beans, leaving Harry to his thoughts.

He studied Ron's face for several moments. He had known the other boy had feelings for Hermione, but he had thought that that had changed several weeks beforehand. He had also never thought of Hermione liking Ron. That particular thought had never come across his mind.

"Are you sure Hermione feels that way? I mean, she's hugged both of us before, she does it regularly." Harry didn't want Ron to convince himself of something that wasn't true.

"I'm positive," Ron said, grinning ear to ear and taking a large bite of his green beans. "One hundred percent positive."

Harry shrugged. It was possible, and it would be a fun thing to follow. Why not believe it?


	10. 10: Chasing Fog

A/N: Oooo. I like this chapter (well, this and the next chapter). Hope that you do too. It (they) has/have a lot of foreshadowing clues, and I hope that it'll make all my shippers happy. Just remember, the relationships in this story are very complicated, and right now, nothing is as it seems. Hint hint. Oh, and remember to Read, Relish, and Review!

**Chapter 10: Chasing Fog**

The next week at Hogwarts was uneventful. They began studying dugbogs in Care of Magical creatures. Dugbogs were creatures that lived in marshes, living off mandrakes and disguising themselves as floating pieces of wood. The first lesson Hermione had helped Hagrid organize turned out to be a success, and though it did seem moderately gory to feed the dugbogs mandrakes, it was interesting to watch them swim around in large tanks.

Defense class continued with a lesson on blocking and a demonstration of advanced Karate between Professor Ronin and Alexis, in which they both covered a large range of punches and kicks that none of the 6th years would probably be learning. The week passed smoothly and everyone was happy at the beginning of their first Hogsmeade weekend.

Saturday the fourteenth of September dawned foggy, waking the Hogwarts students in a blanket of mist. Harry rose from his four-poster and walked over to Ron's bedside as he pushed on his glasses. After he waited for his vision to clear he ripped open Ron's velvet curtains and prodded his fellow pupil in the chest.

"Rise and shine mate." Harry grinned as Ron jumped and wiped the sleep from his eyes. "We've got a big day ahead."

"If you thought that was funny, you belong in an insane asylum," Ron grumbled, sitting up in bed and pulling off his covers. The redhead grunted as he stretched. Harry grinned once more.

"I wasn't trying to be funny." He pulled off his pajamas and replaced them with his quidditch robes and gear. "We need to set a good example. Quidditch tryouts, remember?"

Ron groaned again, trying to find the sleeve in his own robes. "You aren't going to make the team members work too, are you? I mean, _we _aren't the ones trying out are we?"

Harry slipped on his shoes. "Chaser tryouts are different. You'll be stopping a lot of quaffles today." With this Harry pulled the drapes on his bed closed, grabbed his Firebolt from under his bed and walking from the room, Ron quickly following with his shin guards, arm guards and Cleansweep under one arm.

"So you don't have to do anything today because you're the seeker, but I have to work my behind off trying to stop quaffles coming form all directions?" Ron pulled on his robes as they walked down the dormitory steps.

"You're catching on, my friend." Harry said, laughing at Ron's expression. "You'll be doing most of the exercise, but I have to organize the whole thing." Ron's grumpy mood suddenly changed when they met Hermione, Alexis and Ginny in the common room. Ginny was carrying a Cleansweep, though it was an older model than Ron's and Alexis carried a Nimbus 2000, the same model of broom Harry had until third year, when his was smashed to bits by the whomping willow.

"Good morning." Ron smiled mainly at Hermione, but didn't have any more time to say anything, for both Harry and himself were suddenly swamped with questions from Ginny and Alexis, who were both going to try out for the team. The five walked down to breakfast talking about Quidditch. As soon as they got to the Great Hall Harry quickly grabbed a stack of toast and prepared to depart.

"I'm going to get down to the pitch early," Harry said, having finally caught the jitters himself. Ron looked up from the seat he had taken at the table.

"I'm staying here with the others," he said. "I already poured myself some milk." Alexis glanced at Ron.

"Yeah," she obviously wanted to stay as well. "I think I'll sit down and have some bacon. We aren't really supposed to go down for another half an hour are we?" Harry grimaced, not feeling like talking.

"I guess I'll go alone then: Ginny's already sitting down as well." He gestured to Ron's sister who was sitting with some of her 5th year friends. Harry turned to go but stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll come too." Hermione said, picking up a piece of toast as well. "I was going to come watch anyway." She smiled sweetly at Harry, making Ron look alarmed.

"Well, since you're going too Hermione.." Ron pushed back his chair and drained the rest of his milk. Alexis grabbed his wrist.

"Stay here with me," she pleaded, pouting. "I don't want to be left all alone." Ron had no choice other than to stay, letting Harry and Hermione walk out of the Great Hall together.

The two nibbled on their toast as they walked out onto the grounds, The fog had enveloped them, creating an earie scene as the two heard geese honking above them.

"I'll just sit in the stands while the tryouts are going on, there isn't really anything else to do." Hermione said. Harry smiled back at her, grateful that she was coming with him, but having no idea whatsoever why she didn't stay behind and eat breakfast, at a table, with Ron.

Hermione interrupted his thoughts with a tug on his Firebolt. "Will you let me ride? I want to go up and see the geese." Harry grinned down at her, swallowing his last bit of toast.

"Why do you want to launch off all of a sudden?" Harry teased, "you didn't seem so eager when we were practicing at Grimmuald Place."

"At Grimmuald Place I was afraid one of the twins would come in and intentionally knock me off to be funny. Ron could have been a prime suspect too, as a matter of fact. He's starting to act like them, even though his features aren't as adorable."

Harry laughed at this.

"So, the twins _are_ adorable, and Ron isn't _as_ adorable. Wow. '_As_.' that would mean he's sort of adorable, wouldn't it?"

"Ron may be, I don't know.. red haired and.. well.. Just because I like his hair doesn't mean.. Oh Harry!" Hermione gave her friend a light punch in the shoulder.

"Ow! That hurt." Harry grinned but Hermione looked at her feet.

"Sorry- it was just a-"

"No! Hermione; I was joking. You couldn't hurt me! You're a girl!" Harry laughed and Hermione's mouth dropped open, her expression slightly hurt.

"That was sexist! Harry-"

"I'm sorry. Look, I didn't mean it that way."

"Harry- that's like something that- that Ron would say. I didn't think that you were like that."

"Wait- Ron and I are different?"

"Harry! He- he's totally critical; and he never _gets_ anything- but- this isn't really the topic I want to talk about."

"But- so I get things!" Harry stopped dead and stared at her. "I don't _get_ this."

"Well- maybe you just understand more than he does Harry. Really- let's not talk about him behind his back."

"Is there something you want me to tell him for you?"

"Harry!"

"Alright." Harry sighed. "Are you going to eat your last bit of toast? 'Cause, well, if you aren't.." He grinned, as did Hermione.

"Bottomless pit," she handed it to him.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"I- I don't know. Maybe." She looked at him, suddenly slightly shy.

Harry grinned. "Do you want to take a ride or what?" He held out the Firebolt as he ate Hermione's toast.

"Please!" Hermione smiled grabbing the new topic by the horns. "I promise I won't get hurt. You know I'm not such a bad flier.."

Harry changed his expression to one of concern. "You promise not to go that far? I mean, because of the mist-" he gestured around them. "I can barely see twenty feet."

"Oh don't be such a worry wart Harry," Hermione seized the broomstick and mounted. "I _have_ to go further than twenty feet!" There was nothing Harry could say before she kicked off and rocketed into the air.

"Hey!" he shouted after her, trying to sound stern, even though he was grinning. "Come back here!" The fog had swallowed her and everything around him. When nothing but the muffled swoosh of trees in the forbidden forest answered his call. Harry's smile vanished as he looked around him, trying to get a glimpse of his friend in the thick mist.

"Hermione?" He turned and walked in the direction that he thought was the Quidditch Pitch. "Come on, really!" He tried not to sound nervous. He couldn't see much parallel to the ground in any direction, and nothing upward seemed to make sense.

"Hermione?"

Suddenly a sound like a speeding car came from far above Harry.

"Woo hoo hoo!" Hermione's voice came from somewhere behind the thick layer of mist. It changed pitch as she zoomed back and forth in each direction. "This is so much fun!"

"Merlin! I thought you were going to creep up on me Hermione!" He turned in circles, trying to pinpoint the girl somewhere above him.

"That might be a good idea!" Hermione yelled, somewhere to Harry's left.

"What would be a good idea?" Harry spun around once more. When she didn't answer he turned and searched for her in the other direction, thinking she had moved. "Look, maybe we shouldn't do this anymore."

Harry turned in circles, trying to figure out in which direction he had come. Suddenly he heard a wiz from above him. Looking up he dove aside just in time as Hermione dive-bombed him, pulling the broom to a shaky stop approximately fifteen feet away. Harry lay on the dew-covered grass, shocked and thoroughly wet.

"See; it _was_ fun," Hermione grinned.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Harry was amazed. The last time he had seen her on a broom she had been a very insecure flier, only just barely able to make the broom go fifteen miles and hour.

Hermione directed the broom in his direction, moving slowly as she spoke. "I don't know." She cracked into a grin, possibly surprised herself. "It scared you though." Her smile widened.

"It did n-" Harry stopped as he picked himself up. "Look, you probably shouldn't do that; Wood taught me and he said it's very easy to loose control of a broomstick when you're in a dive."

"Oh!" Hermione laughed. "Look at you. You're the _expert!" _

"No, really-" Harry tried to smile. "Come on," he said. "Let's walk the rest of the way."

Hermione studied Harry as he held out his hand to help her dismount the broom. She smiled once more, not accepting his hand but flitting several feet away to his left. "How about 'Catch Me If You Can?'" Hermione lurched up into the air and Harry, his mouth open in disbelief, lost sight of her completely.

"Hermione! Where did you go?"

"Right here!" She teased as she dropped the broom bellow the fog, just so he could barely distinguish her shape. Within five seconds she had disappeared again. Harry ran towards where he had seen her form, trying to figure out where the heck he was.

"Hermione, if you're going to make me move any more it better be towards the pitch!"

He heard Hermione's laughter form somewhere off in the distance. The mist was starting to clear and he could just barely make out Hogwarts castle behind him.

"Catch me!" He once again saw his friend emerge from the mist, gesturing teasingly. "It's this way." Hermione pointed forward, away from the castle. That seemed right. Harry sprinted towards her, only to have her disappear once more. This time she rose up.

Harry halted where he had last seen her, bending and clutching a stitch in his side. "Hermione, come on, let's walk."

"Okay!" came her voice from above. "I'll be down in a second." Harry tuned around once more, seeing the lights of the castle in the distance. Rotating he also just barely saw the metal bleachers of the quidditch pitch, wet and dewy about one hundred feet to his left.

"I've found-"

He was interrupted by a whizzing sound and a shrill scream.

"HARRYYYYYY!" He looked up just as Hermione came pelting down at him, the look of fear on her face saying that she had lost control of the broom, her hands wildly trying to make it turn as she plummeted towards him at great speed. Before he could do anything, Harry was hit full in the chest with the tail of his broom, Hermione being able to stop it from gutting him at the last second.

The air was knocked out of him as Harry hit the ground, wheezing.

"Harry! Make it STOP! HARRY!" Hermione screamed louder than ever, whirling off towards the bleachers.

"HER-" Harry tried to yell but he ended in several wheezing coughs, not being able to catch his voice.

"_HARRY_!"

There was an earsplitting crash, the sound of something wood clattering on metal, and the thump of a lightweight object hitting the grass.

Then everything was silent.

(Oh; about the cliffie; Mwahahahahahaha! I am evil!)   
Next Chapter coming in the next few days.. or hours.. 


	11. 11: Hospital Wing

A/N: I LOVE you're away message at the moment, Laura (origami10). BTW, for other people, it says that she's 'reading an awesome HP fanfic' I feel so special. So; I promised the next chapter within days/hours of the last post, and I'm pretty sure that it's been just under 24 hours, so I'm posting now. Remember: Read, Relish and Review!   
Chapter 11: Hospital Wing 

I took Harry several seconds to realize what had happened. He crawled several feet, finally picking himself off the grass, slightly dizzy and still wheezing. Once he had caught his breath his eyes centered on one scene. Hermione lay on her side at the highest part of the metal bleachers, motionless with her arms limp at her sides. Her hair and robes were thrown wide, her eyes closed, and the boom nowhere in sight. Harry's breath caught in his chest as the first wave of panic hit him.

_No _he thought, _No. _Harry began to jog towards the girl, still finding it hard to breathe. As he caught his breath he broke into a sprint, taking the bleachers three at a time and throwing himself down at the side of Hermione's body. _Please don't be dead_, Harry thought. His face inches from hers he ran a finger down her jaw line, willing her to open her eyes.

"Hermione," he whispered, cradling her head in his lap. "Hermione. Oh Merlin, please be alright."

He pushed a lock of hair out of her face. "Don't- oh shit; I was so stupid Herms- come on, be okay."

Harry's heart gave a jolt as Hermione stirred in his arms, letting out a moan and finally opening her eyes.

"Merlin- Be okay. Tell me you're okay Hermione." Harry helped her sit up, his eyes full of fear and regret. "I shouldn't have let you do that.. I.." Harry's voice trailed off as he watched Hermione's face fill with pain.

She moved her hand to her side, wincing where she touched. Hermione untucked her white blouse and pulled it back to reveal a large, red and bruised cut over her ribs. The cut was bleeding freely and her blouse and fingers soon became covered in blood.

"Harry-" she tried to say something but ended in a coughing fit, clutching her side. Her eyes swam with tears as blood filled her mouth and she hacked it out, letting it splatter to the bleachers on her right side, away from Harry. She turned and clutched the chest of Harry's shirt, looking like she was going to be sick. Tears streamed down her face she tried to straiten out her legs, which were spread at odd angles over the next seat down.

She coughed again as Harry swore, cursing himself for what he had done to her.

"Mione- I-" Harry stared at her, words strewn across his mind, incapable of forming the sentences he wanted to pour from his mouth.

"Harry-" Hermione tried to say something but she stopped, crying over her words. "Can I-"

"Right- hospital wing- I'm so stupid."

She didn't answer but looked at him, wincing as she tried to get up and failed. Without words he caught her before she fell again and swung her up, one arm under her legs and the other holding up her torso. She encircled her arms around his neck, crying into his shoulder as he carried her down the bleachers.

Once Harry got Hermione off the bleachers he jogged with her in his arms all the way to the castle.

Harry walked backwards to push open the great oak front doors, revealing a group of people he was very thankful to see. Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Alexis, Ginny and Ron were all standing in the magnificent room, the latter three just about to leave for the tryouts.

"Oh my goodness." Professor McGonagall was the first to see Harry and his burden, covering mouth with her hand and rushing over as fast as her feet could carry her. Dumbledore followed, forcing Hermione to turn her face towards him. She had blood on her chin, as well as her blouse, which was by now permanently red.

"What happened?" Dumbledore motioned for Harry to put Hermione down, and let her walk on her own, which she tried with difficulty, and then tripped, leaning against the headmaster. Harry moved forward when she fell, not knowing what to do, but Proffessor McGonnagall rushed to the girl first, blocking his way.

"Wha-" Ron, had not moved from his spot. Neither had any of the others. Suddenly they seemed to come to their senses.

"Hermione." Ginny whispered, awestruck.

"HERMIONE!" Ron came rushing over, trying to see the girl's face. The others followed, pushing around Ron and trying to get past the teachers.

"MOVE!" Alexis was in hysterics, trying to push professor McGonagall out of the way. "Let me- let us-"

The transfiguration teacher whirled around and pointed her wand at the three of them.

"_Silecio_!"

Alexis gave a silent scream and grabbed at her neck. Ron began to shake his fist at the teacher, but the elderly woman quickly controlled all of them.

"Go." She pointed to the foot of the marble staircase, her eyes full of fury. "Now. Sit." They obeyed, as if it were the only thing they could do. Ron, Ginny and Alexis sat on the bottom step, leaning forward with great concern on their faces.

"What happened?" the Headmaster spoke again to Harry.

"She wanted to ride my broom. I should have-" Harry sniffed and tried to hid his tears.

"Enough said." The man silenced the boy, lifting Hermione gingerly onto a floating stretcher that McGonagall had conjured.

Harry looked over at his friends. Ginny looked like she would cry. Alexis wore an expression of quiet shock and Ron, quite the opposite, was livid. If he could have talked he would have been screaming his head off right then. But they all seemed glued to their seats on the stairs and since McGonagall had pocketed their voices there was no sense in trying to do anything.

"Harry," Hermione rasped, holding out her hand and spitting more blood onto the stretcher. Tears ran down her face as she beckoned to him. Harry looked at Dumbledore for permission to approach her. The old wizard nodded.

"You may come with us Harry." Harry took Hermione's outstretched hand and walked with her as Dumbledore begin to levitate the stretcher up the stairs to the second floor, where they would bring her to the hospital wing. Ron, Ginny and Alexis, Ginny openly crying, turned and watched the procession of four walk past.

When they reached the middle of the stairs McGonagall turned back to them. As soon as he saw that he had her attention Ron began gesturing madly at the stairs and then trying to get up, trying to explain to her that the situation wasn't fair. No words came out of his mouth and he finally gave up and sat back down, his pants almost being pulled down several times as he tried to get up. McGonagall took this time to speak.

"The spells I have put on you will last another ten minutes and, when you have the option of getting up, you may join us in the Hospital wing. You must understand that you need to act calmly in a situation like this. Any rash actions and you could have worsened your friend's injury. Take this time to rethink what you have done." She paused. "Someone will also have to warn any Gryffindor that ventures outside of the fact that quidditch tryouts are postponed forty-five minutes." With these final words, Professor McGonagall turned back up the stairs and walked around the bend, disappearing form view of the other three.

As soon as she was out of sight Ron yelled something at the top of his lungs (though it came out silent he still used a lot of breath) and made a very rude gesture at where the Professor had last been seen. Fuming, he stared at the floor, cursing Harry and everyone else.

Meanwhile, Harry and Professor Dumbledore were lifting a ghostly white Hermione into a hospital bed. Madame Pomfrey, an elderly witch with spectacles, bustled around, pulling all different kinds of potions from shelves and putting them onto a large silver tray. Harry quickly grabbed a cup and gave it to Hermione as she started another coughing fit. She spit out the blood and gave Harry a pained glance that told him exactly how miserable she was.

"I'm sorry," she whispered feebly to Harry.

"That's alright." Harry stopped her from apologizing. "It was all my-"

"NO talking!" Madame Pomfrey demanded from the other side of the room.

"-Fault."

"You'll worsen those internal injuries if you so much as move Miss Granger. There's nothing I can't fix, but it just makes it easier."

Harry smiled weakly, then raised his eyebrows at Hermione, silently mocking the healer in a search for a better morale. This made Hermione laugh and cough up more blood into the cup.

"_For goodness sakes Miss Ganger_!" Madame Pomfrey ran over and quickly poured the girl a large tankard of thick, red liquid. "Drink this. It will heal some of the things on the inside."

Hermione took a gulp of the syrup like liquid, smiling slightly as she tasted it.

"I know; it tastes good," Madame Pomfrey said crisply. "But if you drink too much you'll have a heart attack. It fills up all the crevices and spaces inside your body. You'd be completely solid. Now drink up."

"I'd better be going." Dumbledore said with twinkling eyes from the end of Hermione's bed. Harry jumped at the sound of his voice for he had forgotten that the man was even there.

"Good day Headmaster," Madame Pomfrey said curtly. Hermione and Harry raised hands to say goodbye, being at a loss of words.

Hermione finished her tankard and placing the empty glass on her nightstand she turned to Harry.

"It isn't your fault Harry, that I crashed. I heard you blame it on yourself and that isn't true." she said clearly, her voice back to normal. As she sniffed and wiped the tears away from her face, Harry felt a wave of compassion towards her.

"I thought I told you not to say anything." Madame Pomfrey scolded, obviously having overheard. "If your organs heal wrong it will be your fault not mine. Wait another ten minutes before you move another inch!" This shut Hermione up. She still managed to smile weakly at Harry before she looked down at her hands once more.

Madame Pomfrey walked over at that time, carrying her tray of creams and different colored bottles.

"I need you do be still now. This may hurt a bit." Madame Pomfrey made to unbutton Hermione's blood-soaked shirt and the girl gave a twitch of fright. She glanced up at Harry, her embarrassment showing in her eyes.

"Oh yes, of course," Madame Pomfrey paused and looked up at Harry. "I'm afraid I have to ask you to go dear. It isn't.. Proper." Harry and Hermione both turned beet red at these words. The boy tried to hide his embarrassed grin, but Hermione saw and turned away.

"Oh. Yeah." Harry turned, his face burning as he almost ran from the room.

"Dearie," Madame Pomfrey called as he pulled the door open. He turned to see her as she spoke. "I'll call you back in about ten minutes. It won't take any longer than that." Harry nodded stiffly, and walked through the door, securing it firmly behind him.

Harry settled himself on the bench outside, his elbows on his knees and his eyes focused on the floor. He grinned at first, but then wiped the expression from his face, trying to be serious.

"She'll be okay," he told himself quietly. "Madame Pomfrey can mend bones in a second. She's going to be fine." He stared at the cracks in the corridor floor. Every little imperfection seemed to stand out. He grinned once more and then bit his lip.

After several minutes of silence Harry's thoughts were interrupted by a mad ruckus on the steps not far to his right. Ron, Alexis and Ginny came scrambling into the hallway, having sprinted all the way from the ground floor after the spell had broken.

"Harry," Ginny gasped. "Is she all right? What happened?" She collapsed on the bench next to him, huffing loudly.

"She's going to be okay." Harry smiled at her, glad to see the relief wash over her face.

"Thank GOD!" Alexis shouted for all the world to hear, grabbing Ron in a tight hug. She quickly released him and moved next to Harry, who returned her hug and smiled. Next she turned to Ginny, crushing her as well and plopping down on the bench as well as the other two.

Ron didn't seem to want to be as happy as the other three.

"So..So.." He tried to begin but words failed him.

"What?" asked Harry, still grinning at what Madame Pomfrey had said, as well as Alexis's joy.

"So you almost kill her, but now everything's jolly since she almost DIED!" Ron glared at Harry, no mercy or forgiveness in his voice.

"Ron, I.." Harry stared at his friend, no trace of the grin left on his face.

"You were there with her Harry! YOU were supposed to take CARE of her!"

"Ron! I- I- She grabbed my broom an FLEW away!" Harry tried not to raise his voice but it came out loud anyway. He tried no to clench his fists but did anyway. "There was NOTHING I could do Ron." Harry glanced at Alexis, who was staring at the floor looking shocked.

"This is your fault Harry!" Ron said, barring down on his friend.

"That is out of line." Harry glared up at the redhead.

"Ron." Ginny had gotten to her feet. Her eyes flitting from Alexis to Harry to her brother. "You don't know what you're saying."

"I _know_ what I'm saying Ginny!" Ron turned to her. "He- HE ALMOST-"

"SHUT UP!" Ginny exploded. Ron was silent. "THERE IS NO REASON FOR YOU TO BE MORE WORRIED ABOUT HERMIONE THAN US! THIS WAS NOT HARRY'S FAULT, OKAY!"

Ron looked up from his feet after several moments of quiet, pain engraved all over his face. "Ginny.."

"Sit." Ron sat. Ginny sat too. They all sat, silently, until Madame Pomfrey stuck her head outside and invited them back in.

Ron was the first inside the room; Harry and the others followed at a walking pace.

"Hermione! Is everything okay? Does it hurt?" Ron bombarded her with questions.

Hermione laughed. "I'm fine Ron." She smiled at the others as they trooped in, all three of them giving her huge grins. She was wearing a fresh white blouse, which had been part of the school uniform, so they were easy to provide. There was a barely noticeable bandage bellow the silky fabric on her left side. Harry guessed that Madame Pomfrey had put ointment on her cut and the bruised flesh around it.

"What's with the bandage?" Ron said, his usual intrusive self.

"Oh!" Hermione turned slightly pink, realizing that everyone could see through her blouse. "I broke four ribs, and my cut is healing also."

"Ouch." Alexis grimaced. "I've broken ribs before. Got hit by a bludger a little while back." She grinned and flipped her gorgeous hair. Harry cringed.

"Horrible sport, Quidditch." Madame Pomfrey muttered as she passed by with a wreath of herbs.

"Oh! I almost forgot! Quidditch tryouts!" Ginny reminded the whole group.

Harry swore under his breath. "They must all be waiting down at the pitch!" He made to leave but stopped when Alexis tugged at his shoulder.

"McGonagall made us explain to every person that passed what happened. She forgot the point that we were unable to talk or get up. We had to use sign language." Everyone laughed as Alexis motioned 'flying is back 4 5.' She grinned. "I think all of them got the picture. They left without saying a word."

Hermione smiled;

"They probably thought you were out of your mind."

"So it was postponed 45 minutes?" Harry questioned Alexis.

"Yeah." Alexis checked a thin, silver watch that she had fastened around her wrist. "We should leave in a little bit. It's almost ten-thirty."

Madame Pomfrey moved up behind them, gathering all the people standing and rotating them towards the door.

"Correction. Leave now. You need to go _now._" The healer herded them towards the door. "Miss Granger will be out of here in an hour or so. She needs to wait for that cut to heal." With waves and shouts of good-bye to Hermione, the group left the hospital wing feeling reassured and hopeful.

**A/N; Stay updated! The next Chapter is on the way! (quidditch tryouts; they're amusing.) Remember to Review! (Sometimes I use the number of reviews that I've gotten to decide when I'm going to post next.) Sam- you read within like, two hours of when I post! How do you do it! It's amazing! Hee hee.**


	12. 12: The Different Shades of Pink

**A/N: I know, I haven't posted in, like, FOREVER. I am sooo sorry. The field hockey season started, and I'm way behind on the story. I promise to really keep writing (I'm on Ch. 20 now!) and have Jess edit everything fast, so that I can stay on track and post sooner next time. I hope you like this; it's mostly fluff. **

**Chapter 12: The Different Shades of Pink**

On the way down to the locker rooms Alexis and Ginny fell behind Ron and Harry, giving them time to discuss everything that had been said earlier. The duo walked silently for several minutes until Harry finally spoke.

"Look," he said to Ron. "I know you really care about Hermione, but that doesn't give you a reason to blow up like you did back there."

"She was seriously hurt, man! You could have just- just said that-"

Harry glared at Ron.

"Okay. Fine. Look, I'm sorry. I should have kept my cool," Ron apologized.

Harry sighed. "Alright. Just- just don't do it again."

Then there was a few moments' silence, which Ron worked up his courage to break.

"So.." Ron began nervously. "Did she mention me at all? While you were outside?"

Harry looked at Ron for several seconds, racking his brain. Suddenly he remembered what Hermione had said, both praise and critisism. "Yeah. She might have said something." He smiled slightly when he remembered what Hermione had said about Ron's hair.

"Tell me what she said." Ron looked pleadingly into Harry's face.

Harry grinned harder.

"Tell me."

Harry took in a breath and told half the truth. "She said that you were 'adorable.' She likes your hair. But-"

"Really?" Ron's face broke out in a smile. He looked like he could jump up and down. "She really said that about me?"

"Yeah, but-"

Ron let out a whoop, jumping into the air. "Harry, do you know what this means?" The read-head was jubilant.

"No, but- she-"

"She really feels the same way!" Ron grinned and pushed open the door to the locker rooms, walking in ahead of Harry. "She really does care!" Harry followed, silently reminding himself that next time he should hand out the bad new first.

There were several moments of quiet as the group out on their arm and shin guards and took goggles out of their pockets. A thought suddenly snagged in Harry's mind, brining a moment of alarm.

"Hey," he looked up as he tied his shoe. "Does anyone know where my broom is?"

Everyone looked up at Harry, his or her expressions of surprise mingled with sudden recognition.

"I don't know Harry. We didn't think about that.." Ron looked nervous. "There isn't really a way it could have broken or anything, is there?"

Alexis agreed. "Firebolts do not just go and crack in half." Harry felt somewhat reassured. They would look for it once they got outside.

Ten minutes later the four friends emerged from the locker rooms hauling cones, flags and different shaped balls, having also put on all their arm and shin guards. Harry had changed out his quidditch robes as well, for they were consequently very wet- and slightly bloody. He wore a spare pair of quidditch pants, topped with the usual Hogwarts uniform; a white t-shirt with button-up shirt over top.

Once the group reached the Quidditch pitch the three other team members, Katie Bell, Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper, greeted them. Katie Bell was a seventh year and played chaser. Andrew and Jack were fifth years; the team's beaters.

"Harry!" Katie Bell raced towards the foursome. She was carrying two brooms. "Is this yours? I found it under the bleachers." A wave of relief washed over Harry as he accepted his Firebolt. It must have gone right through a gap between the seats. It was perfectly intact and looked as functional as ever.

As the seven levitated flags and cones into the air for drills, they talked about the people who were going to try out.

"I haven't heard of anyone who's coming to tryouts," Alexis said as she flipped her head upside down to put her hair in a ponytail.

Ginny grinned. "Let's just hope that we're the only people trying out Alexis, that would make it really easy to become part of the team."

Katie Bell laughed at this. "Are you any good Alexis? We've already seen Ginny play, so we know she's a pretty good flier."

Ron came over and joined the group that was talking. "Alexis has played for the New York state team. That means she's pretty good. Right?" Alexis flushed pink at this praise. Harry, Andrew and Jack walked over after levitating the last flag into the air.

"Whether she's any good or not all depends on if New York state was good or not. A bit pretty for a quidditch player, aren't you?" Jack said, teasing.

"Hey! Who said that- that- well- that pretty girls can't do sports?" Alexis turned grinned she answered, realizing that the younger boy had been flirting with her. She gave Jack a light shove when he winked. "But I guess that we'll have to see- now won't we." She turned and walked, trying to keep herself from laughing. When she reached Ginny the two girls whispered amongst themselves, each grinning madly.

"Look, here come some people!" Andrew Kirke changed the focus when he pointed back towards the castle. A group of four students was emerging around the side of the bleachers at the entrance to the pitch. All four of them carried broomsticks and they were already dressed in their guards. As soon as they neared, the younger students began introducing themselves.

"Natalie McDonald," a pretty blonde wearing hoop earrings presented herself to Harry, her manicured fingers tickling Harry as she lightly shook his hand. "This is my friend Emma Dobbs. We wanted to try out together."

"Hi," Emma Dobbs said breathily. "We're both in fourth year. I love your shirt, Harry, by the way. It looks wonderful with your eyes." Harry's button up shirt, which he had rolled to the elbows, was white, and it was the school uniform. Andrew Kirke was wearing the same exact thing.

"Er-" Harry didn't know what to say. "Thanks-"

Ron raised his eyebrows at Harry as the two girls departed and emitted shrieks at each other, interlocking fingers and jumping up and down. Alexis sniggered from somewhere a little to Harry's left where she stood with Ginny and Katie Bell. Harry tried to ignore her laughter and the fourth years' hysterical fit. He turned to the third tryout, which turned out to be a third year named Evan Fink.

"We wanted to try out because sports put so much good behind your name. You know, like how the ladies seem to like you so much better once you become the star of the show. I see you already have multiple ladies." Evan jerked his head towards Natalie and Emma, who were both trying to get over their fits. Alexis, Ginny and Katie were now all bent in half with silent laughter at Harry's horrified expression. Harry silently prayed that the next person would seem like they really liked the sport, but Steve Mottson ended up being just as pinheaded as Evan, and it turned out they had agreed to come to tryouts together, and for the same reason.

"So," Steve said, "what do we do on our path to become famous?"

Harry looked the four new tryouts over for several seconds before he answered. "Let me talk to the rest of the team for a sec, okay? We'll start in about a minute." At his words the two boys walked away towards Emma and Natalie. Katie Bell, Ron, Andrew and Jack came over to Harry, looking astounded.

"Is that the best we got?" Ron said; his expression disgusted. Harry pulled the five team-members into a huddle. "Chaser is the most popular spot on the team." Ron continued. "We should have gotten better results."

"This is a joke," Katie Bell commented, looking deeply worried. "None of them really want to be playing badly."

"Well," Harry said, looking forlorn. "We have Alexis and Ginny. I've never seen Alexis fly yet but it seems like she loves the sport and Ginny, well, she _was _an excellent seeker." Everyone grinned.

"Look," Andrew spoke up. "We could just go out there and give them all a try, I mean, how bad could they possibly be?"

"Bad." Ron made a face.

Harry sighed and swiped his bangs out of his eyes.

"Yeah, we should probably just continue tryouts, to give them all a try, like you said Andrew."

Andrew beamed.

"Proud to be of help, Captain!" He saluted Harry. "Oh. And call me Andy."

Harry grinned.

"I planned for the tryouts to take about three hours, but I guess we'll have to stop for lunch since everything was delayed."

"Good." Katie Bell was enthusiastic. "We can eat lunch with them and get to know them better."

Harry smiled at her.

"Okay! 'Gryffindor' on three! One, two, three!"

"GRYFFINDOR!" The five-team members screamed as loud as they could, getting the attention of the six others.

"Lets get started," Harry called to everyone, clapping his hands and picking up his broom. "The first thing I want everyone to do is get in a line behind that cone on the ground, everyone carrying his or her brooms!"

The next two hours everything ran smoothly. Though Alexis and Ginny were, as predicted, the only ones that could really fly, the drills Harry had set up were working very well to show off the multiple weaknesses of the four other tryouts. It was obvious that Alexis was a very good flier, like they had thought. She was able to dip, swerve and roll with the greatest speed and agility. She took the fastest route through cones and flags, coming close enough to barely brush them as she whizzed past on her nimbus. When she threw the quaffle it soared through the air at such speeds that Harry himself wondered if _he_ had that much arm-strength. Ginny was putting on a great show as well, having practiced during the summer. Natalie, Emma, Evan and Steve were having a hard time keeping up with the other two, Natalie crying out shrilly when she broke a manicured nail trying to catch the quaffle, and Evan totally losing his head at Emma when she threw him a bad pass. At 12:45, when everyone was taking a quick water break Harry noticed two figures approaching their side of the pitch. Each one was levitating a large package in front of them as they smiled and waved.

Harry elbowed Ron and pointed at the two students.

"Look! Hermione's coming down to the pitch!" Harry told the others.

Ron grinned as he looked up, but his face fell instantly with a groan.

"She's brought Luna as well."

Just then one of the figures gave a shout.

"We've brought food!"

Alexis gave a yell from somewhere towards Harry's right.

"Food! Glorious food!" She ran off towards the approaching girls with her arms spread wide and a huge grin on her face. "Let me at it!" Hermione slowed once Alexis met up with her so that they could talk while Alexis munched on one of the three-dozen sandwiches were piled on the platter in front of her. On the contrary, Luna sped up when she caught a glimpse of Ron, who was now trying very hard to hide himself behind a much shorter Harry.

"Ronald!" Luna called out, waving as she skipped towards the rest of them, trailed by several pitchers of pumpkin juice and a stack of fifteen or so cups.

"Don't let her see me. I'm not here. I'm invisible." Ron refused to show his face as he cowered behind Harry, his ears as red as his hair.

"You're much to old for hide-and-seek Ronald." Luna trotted around Harry, one of her pitchers almost hitting the black-haired boy in the face. She put her fists on her hips and looked at Ron, who quickly straitened, looking embarrassed.

"Hullo Luna." Ron turned beet red and avoided the eyes of the quidditch players, which were all boring into his head.

"Hello Ronald!" Luna smiled brightly and threw her arms around his neck, wand waving madly. A pitcher clunked Ron on the back of the head and the older boy almost fell over into Luna, but the girl didn't seem to mind.

"I've missed you, you know," she said, ignoring the pitchers. Ron politely unfastened her hands from behind his head and put them down at her sides, forcing a smile.

"Why don't we eat?"

They gathered in clumps on the grass just as Alexis and Hermione arrived with the sandwiches.

"There's chicken salad, tuna salad, turkey, cheese and BLT." Hermione smiled around at them. "I met Luna on my way downstairs and we decided to bring everything together."

"You shouldn't have invited her to come." Ron hissed in Hermione's ear as he helped himself to two chicken salad sandwiches and a cup of juice. "This is going to make the rest of tryouts miserable."

Hermione frowned.

"She isn't actually as horrible as you think," she said, her expression morphing into a teasing smile. "I love to see you get all embarrassed about her." She took a tuna and sat on a blanket she had lain out next to Harry.

Harry smiled at her when she sat down.

"So, everything's okay?" He helped himself to a BLT. "I'm really- I'm really sorry, you know.."

"Harry! For God's sake!" Hermione smacked him on the shoulder. "_I_ was the stupid one. And I'm fine."

"Alright." Harry grinned and played with the grass at his feet.

"Oh- and I saw this on the coffee table in the common room-" Hermione pulled Harry's camera- the one that she had given him- out of her bag. "I thought that you might want it to take pictures of the tryouts." She handed it to Harry, who smiled and thanked her, having not though of the idea, but finding it a good one once it had been introduced to him.

"She's very creative." Alexis said, still on the topic of Luna. She was eating her second cheese sandwich, sitting on the other half of Hermione's blanket. Luna was talking to the fourth-year girls a hundred or so feet away.

"I love those earrings, actually," Alexis continued. "If I had any money, I'd buy all the wacky earrings in the world and wear a different pair every day. My sister could never afford to give me pocket money for things like that though."

There was a moment of silence.

"But really." Ron wouldn't back down. "Pink teapots? As earrings?"

"I love pink."

"You hate pink."

"How would you know?" Alexis exclaimed. Harry and Hermione grinned.

"You said just three days ago," Ron accused, "that when you were nine you vomited up strawberry waffle for three hours and you wouldn't go near the color after that."

"That was a different shade of pink."

"Oh yeah? There is only one shade of pink. Pink, pink, and pink. They're all the same."

"Ron, just because you're color-blind doesn't mean we all are."

"This is between myself and Alexis, so don't interrupt Hermione. So anyway, pink is one color. If it gets darker you get red, and the only thing lighter is white. That's all."

"Light pink, rose, petal pink, hot pink, magenta, soft pink, baby pink, bright pink-"

"Magenta isn't pink."

"If I hear to word 'pink' one more time I will explode."

"Should I make Hermione explode Harry? Should I say 'ping-'"?

"Be quiet Ron!"

"You're no fun Hermione."

"I'm going for another sandwich."

"I'll come too Alexis."

"You just ate four sandwiches in under three minutes Ron. Sit."

"She's had two, plus I didn't eat the crusts on mine, so she ate just as much as I did."

"Then eat your crusts. They're the best part."

"I don't like crusts. Maybe you do but-"

"Quit whining."

"Hey Alexis!"

"Yeah Harry!"

"While you're over there can you get me a cheese one?"

"Sure!"

"I said the whole crust Ron."

"It isn't fair; Harry's getting another sandwich."

"This is only my second. –Thanks Alexis- Wow; these _are_ good."

"Can I have half of your sandwich Alexis?"

"No."

"I'll be your friend if you give me a fourth of it."

"You know what Ron?"

"I'll listen if you give me some of the sandwich."

"No way."

"Fine. What? Oh, these crusts are disgusting."

"Good boy Ron. You can have another sandwich if you just finish the other three."

"Shut it Hermione."

"Anyway. We'll go to go to Hogsmeade together tomorrow, and I'm going to buy a pink jumper. It'll be bright pink and fluffy, just to prove to you that I'll wear something pink. And then, guess what I'll do?"

"What?"

"I'll go and ask Luna if I can borrow her earrings."

"I'll never talk to you again if you do that."

"Okay, who cares, just be quiet 'cause here she comes now."

Ron gave a yelp of surprise at Harry's words and dropped his remaining crusts onto the grass.

"Hello again Ronald, and Harry, Hermione and.. I don't believe that we've met."

Ron swore under his breath as Luna approached Alexis.

"I'm Alexis Garcia. I transferred from New York's Academy at the start of the year."

Ron swore again, which got him a hard elbow in the ribs form Hermione.

"Luna Lovegood." The girl with the pink earrings smiled. "Did you know that there are minchents in New York City?"

Alexis looked confused. "What are minchents?" Harry sniggered as Hermione looked exasperatedly at the clouds. Ron groaned and buried his face in his knees.

"Minchents are mutant chipmunks that create clouds when they breathe. That's why there's always smog over big cities!"

"That's pure rubbish."

"You never agree with anything I have to say, Hermione."

"That's because it isn't really- well- true."

"I think that minchents sound pretty interesting, even though it is probably the machinery that creates the pollution."

"Thank you Alexis." Luna smiled as Ron buried his face deeper into his knees. "Oh, and by the way, I love that name, Alexis, I think I'll name one of my children that. And of course I'll name one Hermione, after you... it'll be the one who doesn't seem to believe in anything." Luna went on, not noticing Hermione's expression of disbelief. "And I'll have a Harry, and a Vincent, and an Alison."

There was a moment of silence in which Hermione sat fuming and Alexis glowed happily.

"How many children are you going to have!" Harry asked, slightly hesitant.

"As many as possible, but definitely over ten." Everyone else had to hide their grins at this.

"Who with?" Ron asked jokingly, trying to keep from cracking up. Luna stared, mildly surprised and ever so slightly hurt.

"With you, of course, Ronald. I thought that you knew." Ron looked dumbfounded as his ears turned slowly redder and redder, followed by his face. Alexis looked suddenly horrorstruck, and Hermione snorted into her sandwich, keeling over sideways behind Harry to hide her face.

"That- that's wonderful Luna." Harry said though tight lips, trying to ignore Hermione, who was laughing into his back.

"Thank you Harry. I'm glad that you approve." The blonde girl smiled and turned, going over to talk to the two fourth-year girls once more.

The four stared at each other when Luna was out of earshot, everyone except Ron wearing a tremendous smile. Hermione recovered from behind Harry, sitting up and attempting to remove the grass from her hair. She flushed as she tried to hide her smile.

"That was a photographic moment." Harry said, grinning down at the camera that he held in his lap.

"Don't you dare-" Ron threatened.

"I already took a picture." He grinned. "Just when your ears reached their peek- redness."

"Bloody Hell Harry!" Ron yelled at the top of his lungs, just as Alexis and Hermione burst out laughing, both spraying food all over the grass. Harry snapped a picture of Hermione, then one of Alexis, but he missed the latter when Hermione jumped on top of him.

"Harry! I thought I told you not to take pictures of me ages ago!" She tried to take the camera from her friend. "I hate it when people take pictures of me!"

"Too bad- I already did." He laughed, taking another picture of her as she sat on top of him, trying to grab the camera.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed. "I told you not to-"

"Okay! Maybe we should get tryouts started up again what do you guys think?" Harry laughed as he rolled out from underneath Hermione. The brunette grabbed the camera from him and tried to find a way to delete the previous pictures.

"You can't do that- there's no erase button." Harry chuckled, taking the device back from a huffy friend.

"I can't believe you-" Hermione said, Alexis just grinned and Ron watched the two of them, an odd look on his face.

"Has everyone finished eating?" Harry asked the whole group.

Several cries of 'yeah' and 'thanks, whoever brought the sandwiches' came over in his direction.

"Okay! Lets get back to where we were. We're going to do some short scrimmages for the next hour, to see how individuals work in team form. The first thing we're going to do is divide into teams."

"Luna and I will be right over there, okay?" Hermione gave Harry a reassuring pat on the shoulder, walking away and then returning, quickly grabbing the camera smiling wickedly at him.

"I'll be photographer," she added in a whisper.

"There isn't an erase button!" Harry called after her, grinning. "Believe me!"

Hermione turned her head slightly and screwed up her expression at him. "I'll find a way."

With this she and Luna walked over to the stands, Luna carrying the empty tray and pitcher.

"Bye Hermione!" Ron waved franticly. Hermione laughed and waved back. Luna laughed hysterically, as she was known to, and waved back with both hands once she put down the tray and pitcher. At this Ron turned beet red and stared at his feet.

The eleven quidditch-players formed 2 teams of five, Harry not playing, but hovering in the middle of the field as referee. They were five person teams with a keeper, one beater and three chasers, no seeker. When Harry said that they would choose teams by captain's choice, Jack Sloper and Ron quickly called the spots of captain. Ron, probably out of will to make Hermione, who could hear the whole conversation, impressed, said that Jack could have first pick. Jack, without thinking, picked Katie Bell. As second choice, Ron quickly chose Ginny and Alexis. (He could pick two since he was second captain.) Then Jack selected Steve to be his chaser, telling a very forlorn Andrew Kirke that he needed to pick offence, since he himself would be the team's beater and he'd probably put Katie in goal. Next, Ron chose Andrew, who gave Jack a sneer and happily joined the redhead's team. In the end, Jack ended up with Emma and Natalie as chasers while Ron took Evan to be his third offensive player.

"Great," Harry said. "This means all the tryouts will get to play the positions they want." He smiled and quickly explained that they would divide the last hour of tryouts into two, thirty-minute games and that he would use that time to score each of the tryouts and see how they worked in a team situation. Once everyone was set in his or her positions, Harry freed one of the bludgers and threw the quaffle up into the air, where Alexis quickly intercepted it.

"Go Alexis!" Harry heard Hermione scream from the stands. He looked back and saw both Luna and his friend jumping up and down. He chortled to himself and looked back at his clipboard, where he had already scribbled 'Alexis: Excellent interception.' Alexis quickly passed to Ginny, who cheered at the excellent pass and quickly tossed it to Evan, who dropped the ball. Natalie, who was right under Evan, gave a shriek as the quaffle plummeted towards her face. She buried her head in her manicured hands and the ball bounced off her back. Alexis caught it again as Steve began pelting Natalie with insults about how 'crummy' she had acted.

Alexis soared, nothing in her way, towards the goal as Emma Dobbs raced to comfort her friend. She artfully dodged a bludger and sent the quaffle wide to Katie Bell's left, where it when right through the center of the far hoop.

"Darn it," Katie looked disappointed at missing the save.

"That's alright." Alexis caught the ball as it fell through the other side of the hoop. "It's your first time keeping right?"

"Yeah." Katie smiled as Alexis zoomed away with the quaffle, passing to Ginny who quickly came back at the goalposts. This time Katie saved it and did a magnificent punt halfway down the field, but the quaffle was once again dropped by her teammates and caught by Andrew Kirke, the beater. He gave it a hard whack with his bat and it went flying back towards Alexis.

The games continued like this, steadily getting worse as the losing team got moodier, until it was finally time to end the second game. Harry and his friends walked to the Locker Rooms in a scrambled line, tiered with their shirts sticking to their backs. Hermione approached Harry and Ron and pushed in-between the two.

"That was very well organized, Harry. Here's the camera."

"I'm glad to have your approval." Harry took the camera from his friend. "Did you find a way to erase the pictures?" He grinned as Hermione screwed up her face.

"I'm going to destroy them once they develop."

"So. Do you think Ginny and I made the team?" Alexis walked up on Harry's side of the trio and looked at the team captain expectantly. Some short ends had fallen out of her ponytail and they were sticking to her sweaty face. "Say yes."

"I can't tell you yet, Alexis." Harry knew he had already decided but the rest of the team needed to vote to make it official. "Everyone's going to vote tonight at dinner." Alexis jokingly stuck her tongue out at him.

"Fine!" She said sarcastically. "I didn't want to walk with you and Ron anyway. You smell." She stalked off and joined Andrew and Jack, for the latter quickly pulled her into their group.

"Do we really?" Ron looked puzzled.

Harry frowned. "Of course we have to vote Ron..."

"No, I mean, do we really smell?"


	13. 13: Come Get Me

Author's note: Hey guys! Fluff for you! Field Hockey is over; the banquet is tonight. That's both good and bad.. but it also means that I get to spend some more time doing this. Look! It's a Wednesday! I'm posting at four o'clock in the afternoon on a weekday! Oh Glory. Well, I'll let you get to reading. R&R!   
Chapter 13: Come Get Me 

When it came time for dinner Hermione, Ron and Alexis when down to the great hall ahead of Harry. Harry had decided to develop Hermione's pictures from the tryouts, which wouldn't take longer than ten minutes. Maybe he could use them to support his decision for the chasers. He was trying to think of some reasons why he wanted Ginny and Alexis as part of the team. It was obvious that they both worked good with the rest of the players, and that Alexis was the best flier at Hogwarts, possibly even better than Harry and anyone her age that the black haired boy had ever seen. But would everyone else think that he had picked the two just because they were his friends? But that was one of the main reasons, wasn't it? Being able to be friends?

Fifteen minutes later Harry walked down to the Great Hall carrying his pictures; still pondering about what he would say when he reached the rest of the quidditch team. He was feeling extremely nervous by the time he entered the hall.

"Oy! Harry!" Harry looked around and spotted Ron and the rest of the quidditch team sitting at the far side of the Gryffindor table. He gave Ron a weak smile and wave as he walked slowly forward, still trying to figure out what to say. He wiped his sweaty hands on his robes and reached out to pull a chair from the table next to Andrew Kirke.

"Hullo," was the only word he could force out of himself as he sat down. Harry had a hard time figuring out why Ron was grinning so ecstatically as he wiped his hands on the back of his robes for the second time. "So..." Harry nervously tried to break the silence. "I was thinking that... Well- I have some pictures to show you-" Harry stopped and took a sip of pumpkin juice, laying the pictures on the table, but no one seemed to pay attention to them.

"We were talking about tryouts," Ron grinned even harder as he addressed Harry. "Before you came down, and we've-" he paused and looked around at the smiling faces of the Gryffindor team players. "We've unanimously decided that Alexis and Ginny should be the new chasers." Everyone grinned and Harry instantly relaxed. "Unless you think the others were better?" Ron smiled jokingly.

"No!" Harry said, laughing. "That- that's exactly what I wanted to hear. Alexis and Ginny it is." He smiled. "I'll make an announcement."

Harry stood up on his chair. He clapped his hands to get the attention of the Gryffindor table.

"I'd like to make an announcement!" The whole dinning hall hushed at this and Harry rethought that it might have been better to tell just the Gryffindors in the common room later that night. But he couldn't just sit down, so he continued.

"I'd like to announce the two new chasers on the Gryffindor quidditch team." All the Gryffindors sat perfectly quiet, they're eyes fixed on Harry. Except for one. Evan Fink stood up and raised his hands to the rest of the crowd, obviously thinking that he was one of the two new team members. Harry felt a rush of disgust towards the third year. After the blonde boy had made it clear to the school, he turned to Harry and waited for the older boy to announce his name.

Harry continued, trying to keep a strait face. "The two new Gryffindor chasers will be Alexis Garcia and Ginny Weasley." The Gryffindor table erupted in applause as Alexis gave forth a real, live scream and almost fell backwards in her chair. With tears of happiness flowing from her eyes she ran laughing towards Harry, who she gave a big hug and in front of the whole student body. Ginny smiled shyly behind Alexis as she received a hug and kiss from Dean.

"This is going to be an amazing season." Katie Bell grinned to Alexis as she received her own hug. "We are going to be the best of friends."

When they had finished eating, Harry and the rest of the quidditch team got out of their seats to leave the great hall, Hermione, Dean and many other nonmembers trailing them.

"I have to go tell Nieve!" Alexis was ecstatic. She grabbed Ron and Jack Sloper by their wrists and began dragging them towards the staircase.

"No! Wait." Ron swiveled around. "Hermione. You come too."

"I have to ask Harry something."

"But-" Ron stared at her, trying to read her face, but he was unable to.

Alexis called to Ron; "C'mon," She pulled the taller boy away from his other friends. Reluctantly he turned and followed Alexis, Jack, and Katie Bell up the stairs two at a time. The other quidditch members followed Alexis' procession as Hermione walked Harry over towards one wall of the entrance hall. The black-haired boy put on a slightly puzzled expression.

"I was wondering if..." Hermione paused and looked at the staircase, where Ron was glancing back at them. Finally Alexis gave him a hard tug and he continued his way up to the common room. Hermione turned back to Harry. "I was wondering if you would take me flying. Just once, so I don't get really scared of it. If I don't go now I just know that I'll never touch a broom again."

Harry's eyes softened with understanding as he looked down at his friend. "Hermione, I-"

"Please?"

"Are you sure? Maybe you shouldn't."

"Harry, I won't go off and do something stupid. Just once or twice around the pitch." Harry looked down at her face; it was brave and determined.

"I guess. We'd need to get my broom from upstairs though." He smiled.

"Oh Harry, thank you!" Hermione seemed to glow. "I've already asked Ginny if I could borrow her broom. She's said yes."

The two of them when up to the common room and collected their brooms. No one noticed their quick appearance and disappearances, for they were much to involved in playing with Nieve, who had become the favorite pet in the whole house. Though everyone knew she was canine, not feline, on one would have wanted to turn Alexis in for sneaking such a lovable creature into the castle.

Harry and Hermione hurried down the marble staircase in order to do their laps before the sun set. They walked over the warm grass in silence, Harry watching his feet and Hermione moving Ginny's broom nervously from one hand to another. Her air of security had left.

When the two of them reached the edge of the pitch, Harry stopped and let go of his broom, letting it hover. Hermione stopped walking and looked up at him.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Harry said as Hermione's eyes flashed nervously from her broom, to his face and back to the castle.

"Well, if you really don't want to-" The girl gave an involuntary quiver and stared at her feet.

"No! No- I don't mind. It's just- there wouldn't be much I could do if-" Harry looked at her face. "If something happened." She moved her eyes upward, trying to be brave.

"I know, I just want someone here.." Hermione's voice trailed off and she let go of her broom, letting it hover, as Harry had done for himself, beside her.

"Okay then." Harry knew that it was the best thing to do. He jumped onto his own broomstick and kicked off lightly, hovering in front and ten feet above Hermione.

The girl threw her leg across the shaft of Ginny's Cleansweep and let out her breath slowly. Mounting was awkward since she was still wearing her uniform, a gray skirt with pleats and stockings.

Harry flitted to the right so that he was to her side. As she raised her face towards his he realized that she was shaking violently.

"Hermione-" Harry felt a sudden regret for letting her convince him to take her outside.

"No Harry, I can do this." The girl hissed as she fixed her hands on the shaft, left above right. "All I need to do is kick off," Hermione whispered to herself. Harry could barely distinguish her words. With a quick intake of breath she pushed off lightly. Within two seconds the girl had brought the broom back down again and was dismounting.

"Hermione." Harry brought his broom down gently and jumped off it, slowly walking over to his friend. "If- well- we don't have to do this." He stood beside her as she caught her breath.

"No- Harry- I need to fly. If I don't- well- then I'll never watch another quidditch game in my life- cause I'll think that one of the players is going to whirl off at me- and then- God, I must sound so stupid."

"No, Hermione, you don't." Harry felt a sudden closeness and empathy towards his friend. "But maybe we should put this off a bit." He put a hand on Hermione's shoulder.

"No, I can- I'm going up there." Hermione said with a sudden sureness in her voice as she quickly remounted her broom. Harry backed away, picking up his own Firebolt, and watched as Hermione let out her breath and then kicked off softly.

She hovered about fifteen feet above the grass for several moments.

"You're doing it!" Harry called up to her, smiling. "See, it isn't that hard!"

Hermione didn't answer him, and Harry circled on the ground so that he could look up at her face.

"That was really good Hermione!" He gave her the thumbs up, shading his eyes so that he could see her better. The late afternoon sun exagerated the shadows on her face.

"Do you-" Harry looked up at her confused, "do you want me to come up too?" He walked another five or so feet to the left, again trying to make out his friend's face among the shadows.

"Why don't you do a lap?" His voice trailed off as he noticed how bad Hermione was shaking. She bent forward, covering her eyes with one of her hands.

"Harry-" Hermione choked out. "Harry, I don't want to do this anymore." Hermione's broom shuddered as she bent forward, trying not to look down.

"Hermione-" Harry felt his brows knot. "You're doing fine! Just- just look where you're going!"

The girl bit her lip anciously, urging the broom forward. "I don't-" she swallowed her words as the broom jerked and then stopped. Hermione hugged the wooden shaft.

"Harry-" Hermione stammered. "I- I can't do it. Merlin, I'll fall and die."

"Your fine- just- just try Herms," Harry felt a small pang of annoyance. "I know you can fly well."

"But- But Harryy!" Hermione whailed. "I know I can't do this. I can't move."

"No, be reasonable Hermione."

"What do you think I am right now! This is reasonable! Harry- I really want- believe me!" She crumpled up, beginning to cry.

"Hermione- you're acting childish- really immature."

Hermione whimpered, then emitted a small shriek as her broom jolted upward another ten feet, stopping when she sat up strait again, still shaking like mad.

"Harry- no- really Harry. Come get me. Harry, come get me right now. If I run into a tree or-" She hugged her broom again and sprung further away from the ground, stopping about forty feet from the grass. "Harry- please-" she sobbed. "Harry- I'm going to die. I'm going to fall off."

"Hermione- you can get down by yourself." Harry ran his hand through his hair, still down on the ground, but looking slightly worried. "Look- you've flown before!"

"Last time I- I- Harry! Come get me, now!" Her whole body quivered on the broom. "No- Harry- I'm going to fall off. I know I am. And- and if you don't come get me now I'll jump. I swear I will." Hermione tipped sideways and shrieked again, almost literally falling off her broom.

"Hermione-" Harry said exasperatedly, scratched his head again.

"Harry!" Hermione sobbed. "Please. Please come and get me."

Harry finally gave in and mounted his broom. He, as irritated as he was, leveled with Hermione, who let go of her broom and flung her arms around his neck as soon as he was within reach.

"Merlin- Hermione!" Harry hissed as he pulled her awkwardly off of Ginny's broom, directing it to go back to the middle of the pitch. Hermione's only reply to Harry's outburst was to burry her face in his chest, shaking silently with fear.

Harry looked around them, still feeling annoyed with the girl sitting sidesaddle in front of him, but patting her lightly on the back anyway.

"Harry- Harry- can we go back down?" Hermione whispered into his shirt. "I- I want to go back down."

"I think that you still need to do some more flying." Harry didn't look at her, still feeling annoyed.

"No- Harry-" Hermione pulled away from him. "God. Harry- take me down now!"

"You still need to do your lap." Harry nudged his broom forward, slowly.

"Stop. Being. An idiot." Hermione wriggled in her seat. "Stop it. Harry- I want to go down."

"We're doing a lap. You said that you needed to-"

"No I didn't!" Hermione pushed Harry lightly, almost toppling both of them. "Stop it!"

"God Hermione." Harry grabbed both of her hands in one of his before she pummeled him more, holding her close. Hermione broke down against him as he pushed the broom out from over the quidditch pitch to the lawn before the castle.

"It's alright, really." Harry softened his voice as they swooped gently about twenty feet from the ground. "It's fine." Hermione only refused to look, hugging Harry as tightly as possible.

They flew around the castle for about ten minutes, until Hermione finally loosened her grip on Harry and looked over the landscape.

"Could we- could we go out over the lake?" Hermione whispered softly, drying her tears. Harry smiled at her.

"See? It isn't that bad, now is it?"

Hermione only sniffed and tucked her head under Harry's chin. He took it as a 'yes' and directed the broom over the lake as the girl had asked.

Harry glided the Firebolt low over the water, so that their feet were just a few inches from the sparkling surface. He smiled again as Hermione relaxed against him, but still wiping her eyes every few moments. Finally she straitened up and pointed down at the water.

"Look!" Schools of tiny little fish flitted below the surface among the weeds and water lilies.

"I can't believe I actually swam in there two years ago." Harry laughed and they exchanged a smile.

The two of them continued around the lake for several minutes, and when they had completed a full lap Harry raised up the broom over the trees of the forbidden forest. Birds chattered and flew in all directions as Harry and Hermione flew, silent, in a loop over the green leaves. As Harry turned the broom back towards the quidditch pitch Hermione grabbed his wrist, silently telling him to stop the broom.

"What?" Harry brought the Firebolt to a stop and looked down at her.

"Look," Hermione pointed towards the west, behind the castle. Harry saw immediately what she meant.

"Wow." The sun was just setting, and it illuminated the entire castle in a pink glow; the greenhouse reflecting light in all different directions and the glass top of the Astronomy tower glittering like a huge diamond.

Hermione turned her face up to Harry's, her windswept hair fluttering in the light breeze.

"Isn't it wonderful?" She leaned her head against his shoulder and looked off into the sun, savoring the moment.

"Yeah." It all Harry could manage. That was when he realized that it felt good, being there with her. He rested his head against her hair and took his other arm off the broom, wrapping her in a hug. They hovered like that in mid air for several minutes, then she shifted and he pulled away, fastening his hand on the broom shaft once more.

"I'm sorry- about earlier." Hermione turned to look into his eyes. "I- It was really immature of me to act that way."

Harry just looked out at the castle. When he didn't reply, Hermione continued.

"But- I was- I was really frightened. And I guess I just kept exaggerating- so that- so that- well, because I made myself think that I couldn't get down on my own- without your help. I shouldn't have pushed you." She looked out at the sunset for another few moments until Harry shifted in his seat. Then she turned back to him.

"Forgive me? Please?"

"Alright."

"Thank you Harry." She pulled him into a hug. "I'd- I'd like to do this again. I mean- well- flying- with you." Hermione looked up at her friend. "Would you? I mean- after what a pain I've been today, I can expect you to say no- but still, would you teach me?"

Harry looked down at her and grinned.

"Alright, I'll take you."

Hermione smiled at his words.

"Thank you." She hugged him once more. "I can't wait until next time." They both gazed at the gleaming castle in the light of the setting sun. After a few moments Hermione broke the silence.

"Harry?"

"Hmm?"

"This is beautiful. I wish every night were like this."

Suddenly Harry felt slightly uncomfortable. He jerked and sat up straight, pretending to stretch.

"Um, we should go back down. The others will probably be wanting to know where we've been."

Even though Hermione looked disappointed, Harry directed the broom downward, and they declined slowly. They stopped to pick up Ginny's Cleansweep from where it lay on the grass and then flew together, with Hermione holding the other broom in her lap, to the stone steps of Hogwarts.

"Thank you. That really helped." Hermione gave Harry another quick hug and then they walked into the castle in silence, both thinking to themselves about the many events that day had presented into their memories.


	14. 14: Songs, Socks and Sunflower Bouquets

Chapter 14: Songs, Socks and Sunflower Bouquets 

**Disclaimer:** In this chapter I use an exert of a song from the Disney Channel Movie "Pixel Perfect." The lyrics belong to Disney Channel and I do in no way take credit for writing them. "Pixel Perfect" belongs to Disney chanel and Disney Chanel only! (And anyway, if you read my Sorting Hat Song, you'll know that I can't write lyrics worth crap.)

The next day, a Sunday, dawned cool and bright. As this was the last day of their Hogsmeade weekend, many students picked this as the time to take their homework down to the village and study at one of the abundant cafes and restaurants available. At eleven o'clock, Harry, Hermione and Ron met Alexis in the common room.

"Good morning!" Alexis stumbled out of the girls' dormitory staircase, yawning and still in her pajamas.

Harry and Ron waved from the table where the three friends were sitting.

"And how long did you stay up last night?" Hermione said as she shuffled through her homework without looking up. "It's almost lunch time. Well, it will be in an hour or so."

"No way!" Alexis said sarcastically as she plopped down in the seat next to Harry. "I thought it was afternoon already!"

Hermione had to smile.

"Hey- are those the tryout pictures?" Alexis jumped out of her seat and grabbed a stack of photographs on another table.

"Maybe- I think that's where I left them last night." Harry leaned over to see them as Alexis sat back down. "Yeah- but there's older stuff too. I haven't gotten a chance to see them yet."

"Oh- look- here's some from- that looks like Diagon Alley- right? Here- you can show them to us." Alexis handed the stack over to Harry. The first picture was indeed in Diagon Alley. Ron and Hermione stood in front of the bookshop, smiling and waving.

"Yeah- this is when we were getting our books." Harry passed the picture around the table.

"How come you never used the potion recipe that I gave you?" Hermione asked, looking at the still photograph. "You know; to make them move?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know; I guess I like them better when they don't move. It seems to make it more.. more real, you know; since the person in the picture doesn't have their own personality- it's really the person you take the photo of."

"You're so old-fashioned Harry." Alexis studied the picture as Hermione passed it on to her. "It's so much fun to see them move. Especially if the person was thinking about something funny when the picture was taken." She grinned and gave the photo on to Ron.

"Oh- look at this one of Crookshanks." Harry passed several others around as well.

"It looks like he's about to claw the lens!" Hermione laughed at the frozen image of her cat. Crookshanks was swiping his paw at the viewer of the print, and it was obvious that the feline did not like having it's picture taken.

"Oh! Here come the ones from yesterday." Harry passed around the picture of Ron, ears red as radishes, staring at Luna as the girl talked about all their future children. Harry laughed. "You can keep that one Ron."

"Bloody-" Ron stared at the photograph. "This one's going strait to the shredder." He pocketed the picture.

"Merlin, Hermione!" Harry laughed.

"What?" Hermione leaned over and looked at the two pictures that Harry held, having placed the others down on the table.

"Harry! I thought I told you to get rid of those!" She tried to grab the photos away from him, but the boy held them out of her reach. The first was a close up of Hermione's face and shoulders, hair all over the place, mouth open as she laughed. She held her sandwich a few inches away from her face, and the picture seemed to capture the moment perfectly. The second was also of her, grinning madly, but unfortunately half of her face had been obscured by her hand as she tried had tried to grab the camera from Harry.

"Harry!" She almost tipped over his chair as she grabbed at the pictures, eventually getting a tight grip on one of them and tearing it as Harry pulled away.

"Hermione!" Harry curled himself around the other picture, the first one, so that she would not take it.

"I can't believe that you didn't destroy them." Hermione said, sitting back in her own chair, holding the two pieces of the second picture- the one where her face was covered by her hand.

"I'm saving this one." Harry said, grinning as he took out his wallet and stuck the picture of Hermione and her sandwich into its folds. "I think it's fabulous." He chuckled when Hermione screwed up her face at him.

"He's going to save it forever Hermione- and then when you're sixty it'll be the only picture that you have of yourself at that age- and you'll offer to pay his a thousand galleons for it- but he'll taunt you because you never liked it." Alexis leafed through the rest of the photos, putting the good ones on the table. "Look- here's a good one of me!" She smiled and held up a slightly blurred photo of herself, scoring during one of the scrimmages.

"So, what are we doing today?" Hermione neatly closed her writing case and peered around at the other three. She was calmly, almost tauntingly, shredding the picture that she had retrieved from Harry.

"Well, it _is_ a Hogsmeade weekend.." Ron said as Hermione walked over to the fire with her shredded photo- throwing it in. "We haven't gone yet-"

"We could go shopping!" Alexis sat up strait in her seat, putting down Harry's pictures. "I could- I could get my pink sweater!"

Ron groaned as Harry stared at Alexis, still half asleep.

"Actually- that might be fun." Hermione smiled, taking her seat once more. "I need to get some cat food for Crookshanks too- I'm almost out. How about we do that? Harry? Ron?"

"Er- we can't do that!" Harry felt suddenly awake. "Um- we have to- we have to-"

"Why can't we?" Alexis looked disappointed.

"Harry- we don't have any homework- and- well.. I think that it would be a great idea."

"I side with Harry, whatever the reason." Ron said. "I do NOT want to go pink sweater shopping."

"Ron-" Alexis looked slightly disappointed.

"Wait, stop you two." Hermione interrupted them. "Harry- why can't we go?" Harry's brain was going 100 miles a minute.

"Er- because- because you said that you'd go see Hagrid today. You know, to help him with the- the lessons. Yeah! Don't you remember?" Harry let out a sigh of relief.

"No.. I don't remember that I ever told Hagrid that-" Hermione looked puzzled. "But I guess that we could all go and talk to him anyway-?"

"But- but we have a- we have this thing." Harry looked strait at Ron and tried to telepathically send him his thoughts. "Alexis, Ron and I have to go to Hogsmeade, 'cause we have this thing."

"What thing?" Alexis stared at Harry and let his eyes bore into hers. "Oh yeah! The thing." Alexis nodded, putting on a serious expression. "Yeah, sorry Hermione, we can't come to Hagrid's- it's really important."

"What 'thing'?" Hermione looked from Harry to Alexis, and then to Ron, who still looked totally confused.

"Er- well, we just have to go to Hosmeade and- well- we could get your cat food for you too. You should really go to Hagrid's; he needs you."

"But-"

"Yeah- Hermione, Hagrid is pretty desperate. He'd _totally_ mess up if you didn't go.." Alexis smiled rather fakely.

"You really think so?" Hermione smiled to herself, obviously flattered. "Well- maybe I should- maybe I should go help him out then."

"Yeah, Hermione." Harry grinned. "He'd be really grateful."

"Wait- I still don't-" Ron tried to insert himself back in the conversation, but Harry interrupted him.

"I think you should go pretty soon, Hermione. I mean, it is Sunday, and he's probably started his planning already."

"Alright. I guess I should leave- so you don't think eleven-thirty is too early to-?"

"No! No way Herms." Alexis wiped away the thought. "You said yourself that it's almost lunchtime!" She skipped up to the couch and picked up Hermione's cloak, which she hung around the girl's shoulders.

"Oh. Thanks. But- then- should I wait until after lunch to go?"

"No, really." Harry got out of his seat. "It's fine to go now. Actually, it's the sooner the better. He'll be happy that you came early."

"I suppose that's true. Well- I guess I'll go then." Hermione walked towards the door. "Are you sure that you don't want to come too?"

"Oh no, we'd love to, but our- our thing is pretty important." Alexis led Hermione to the portrait hole, smiling. "We'll see you later."

"Alright then- have fun at- at whatever you're going to- Bye!"

With this Hermione walked out of the portrait hole, letting Alexis shut it behind her. When she had left Alexis turned around and looked intently at Harry.

"So- Harry, what's our thing?"

Half an hour later the three left the common room to go to Hogsmeade for Hermione's birthday present. They discussed what they wanted to buy for her (they would all chip in for one present) on the way down the marble staircase, and once they were ready to leave the castle they had already decided on Harry's idea for a present.

"So, that's what we'll get her then?" Alexis said as she pushed open front doors to the castle. "I mean, it's a great idea; but it's a bit pricey, wouldn't you think?"

"Well, her parents would never consider buying her something like that, you know?" said Ron, stuck his hands in his pockets. "She- she never seemed like the kind of person who would enjoy to have something like it, but from what Harry said, she seems quite determined."

"Okay, well, if she turns out not liking it- well- then it's your fault, alright Harry?" said Alexis, teasing. "It _was_ your idea."

" I accept all the blame in advance." All three of them grinned.

They walked in silence towards the edge of the Hogwarts grounds, right up until Alexis stopped in her tracks.

"What?"

"Do you guys hear something?"

They all listened.

"Nope."

"I could have sworn that I heard someone singing." Alexis said, tilting her head to one side. She punched Ron in the arm when he put on an expression of mock surprise.

"No- I mean good singing. Not like row-row-your-boat or anything!"

Harry chuckled, but then straitened his face when Alexis shot him a look.

"It was probably just some sort of wind chime or something."

"Yeah, maybe." They walked in silence for another few moments.

"No, I swear I hear someone singing!" Alexis looked at them, and when they didn't respond she grabbed both their wrists. "Come on! Let's go see!"

"Do we have to?" Ron pulled himself free. "I'm hungry."

"Ron-"

"It's just someone singing!"

"Party pooper." With those words Alexis sprinted off in the direction of the music.

"Come on Ron, what do you want to do- stand here?" Harry began walking after Alexis.

"Fine! I'll come." The two boys quickly caught up with Alexis.

Ron groaned when they found the girl listening to Luna, the fifth year strumming softly on an acoustic guitar. The girl's long blonde hair fell in flyaway locks across her face as she gently ran her fingers over the strings and sang.

_"Here's a story of a girl,_

_Livin' in a lonely world,_

_She also had a secret crush,_

_A little boy who talks too much,_

_And I'm standing in the crowd,_

_And when you smile I check you out,_

_But you don't even know my name,_

_You're too busy playing games,_

_And I-"_

"You wrote that?"

Luna looked up, having apparently not noticed that they were there. She stopped playing abruptly.

"Yes. I haven't gotten much though. It isn't even half finished yet."

"That was really good." Alexis smiled. Harry glanced at Ron and almost laughed out loud when he saw the greenish tinge that had taken over the boy's face.

"Thank you. Want to hear the rest?" Luna smiled and brushed her hair behind her ears, revealing her orange radish earrings, the ones that Hermione had said she disliked above all others.

"Sure. It would be grea-"

"Well, actually, we have to leave." Ron took Alexis by the arm. "Remember? Hermione's birthday present?"

"Ron- don't be a loser. Let's listen."

"Here's a story of a girl,

Livin' in a lonely world,

She also had a secret crush,

A little boy who talks too much

And I'm-"

"Holy-" Ron swore loudly and Luna stopped her playing, looking slightly offended.

"Ron!" Alexis glared at him. Then she turned back to Luna. "I'm sorry- he's being an ass. It was really good actually. You aren't in a band or anything, are you?" She grabbed Ron by the elbow and tried to make him stop tugging at her, asking her to leave.

"Well- no one's ever liked my songs before, actually. It's great to finally have someone who appreciates things like that." Luna smiled dreamily.

"Really? That's really sad," Alexis said, her voice strained from trying to get Ron, who was a foot taller than her, to stay put. "Did you- did you write it for anyone?" Ron seemed to go into a time warp.

"Actually, I'd think it would be quite obvious who I've written it for." Luna smiled at Ron, who immediately bolted, taking both Harry and Alexis with him. Luna stared after them blankly for several seconds, but when she realized that they probably weren't coming back, she returned to her singing.

"Ron!" Alexis screamed at the top of her lungs when they stopped several hundred feet off. "That was really rude!"

"I'm sorry- I just- I can't stand her."

Harry bent in half with laugher beside him; "Why? Her obsession's too much for you?"

"I- I actually think that it's kind of sweet!" Alexis looked slightly abashed. "She obviously wrote that song for you- and you wouldn't even listen to half of it! It's very, _very_- inconsiderate- of you."

"That's exactly why I didn't want to listen to it; she wrote it for me!" Ron shouted. "I don't want to be that 'little boy who talks too much'!" He calmed a bit when he saw that Alexis was holding back a giggle.

"She checks you out when you smile!" Harry clutched his stomach, heaving with laugher. Alexis cracked up.

"You're her secret crush, Ron! Are you starting to tingle inside?" She grinned, and pretending to have a microphone in her hand, she stuck her fist under Ron's nose. "So, tell me, how does it feel when someone's in love with you, Ron. Give us the 4-11."

A grin curled around Ron's lips. "Alexis-"

"You're smiling!" Harry howled. "He likes the attention! Merlin, Ron!" Alexis hit Ron over the head with her purse.

"Ow!" Ron clutched his head. "You've got gold in there!"

"Yep." Alexis gave Ron a quick hug. "You'll live." She took off, shouting a quick sorry to Luna as she passed her, then she, Harry and Ron continued off towards Hogsmeade.

The three friends had an amusing lunch at the Three Broomsticks, followed by the purchase of Hermione's present. When they had finished all their necessary shopping, including a trip to the pet shop for Hermione's cat food, they strolled along the street, Alexis looking in every shop for something pink.

"I have to prove to you that I'll wear the color." She explained jauntily, looking in the basket of socks on display outside 'Allan's Footwear and Accessories. '

"So you want to buy a pair of pink socks?" said Ron, shifting Hermione's cat food from one arm to the other.

"Well- do you want to go dress shopping? Sweater shopping? That would take much longer, though it _would _be more fun." Alexis smiled when Ron clamped his mouth shut. "I didn't think so."

She moved to another basket of socks.

"Oh! Look Harry- they've go little kittens on them." She held up a pair of blue socks, speckled with orange cats. Harry laughed.

"They look just like Crookshanks in that picture that we were looking at earlier. No nose," Harry said as he looked at some other pairs.

"That wasn't very nice Harry." Alexis grinned. "But I guess they do look a bit like him."

"Here's a pink pair!" Ron grabbed a pair of bright, shocking pink socks from a basket. "And look; they've got hearts too."

"Ron; those are hideous."

"See! I told you that you didn't like pink. Can we go now?"

"Right after I get these." Alexis held up a pair of magenta knee-socks with white bunnies on them. "I'll be back in a sec." She walked into the shop, searching though her purse for the correct change.

"Hello Harry; Ron." Just at that moment someone called to them. Harry turned to see Jack Sloper waving with a smile on his face.

"Jack! You alone?" Harry waved back as Jack approached.

"Well, Andrew was with me, but he had to go get something back at the castle. What's in the bag?" Andrew pointed at Harry's rather awkward parcel.

"Oh; well- we came down to get Hermione her present; it's her birthday on the nineteenth, next Thursday."

"Really. Didn't know that. I've actually been doing some shopping myself. For- for someone…" At that moment the clerk from the shop next door suck his head out of the entrance.

"Have we got a Jack Sloper any-? There you are!" The clerk came strolling towards their group, holding a bouquet of large, bright sunflowers. He handed the flowers over to Jack, who turned slightly pink. "That'd be a galleon, Mr. Sloper."

Harry and Ron looked around, grinning to themselves as Jack paid for the outrageous flowers. They waved to Alexis as she came out of 'Allan's', carrying her socks in a bag.

"So- who's the special girl?" Harry said to Jack when the clerk left.

"Oooo!" Alexis skipped in to stand beside Ron. "Sunflowers; _do_ tell." She grinned and Jack's face tinted an even darker shade.

"Well- er…" he rocked back an forth on the balls of his feet. "Actually- well- they're actually for you." He grinned, handing then to her. At first, Alexis looked slightly surprised, but her face cracked almost instantly into that perfect, sparkling smile. She took the flowers, inhaling deeply; the grin never leaving her face.

"They're- they're- Oh Jack! Thank you so much! I really love sunflowers." She smelled them again, smiling. Harry and Ron stood stock still, eyes flitting back and forth between the two. Jack glanced nervously at the older boys and then continued, stuttering slightly.

"Well- I- uh- I was wondering if you- if you had a boyfriend."

"No, actually I don't."

"Well- uh- would you like to go out with me? Sometime?" Jack looked at her expectantly, looking horrified at the fact that he was even standing there.

"Alright- Yes. That would be- that would be great." Alexis smiled sweetly.

"Wicked!" Jack almost jumped into the air. Then he turned tail and ran, twisting his head just enough to shout a "see you then" towards the three of them.

When the 5th year was out of earshot Alexis burst out into giggles, leaning against one of the sock displays and letting it all out. Ron and Harry stared at her for several seconds and then awkwardly joined in.

"Oh my God." Alexis wiped her eyes.

"What was that?" Ron joined Alexis against the sock display. "Was I hallucinating? Or did you just agree to- to _go out_ with a fifth year?"

"Hey! I did the same thing last year-" Harry argued, "well, I was the fifth year- but still."

"I know- but- Jack Sloper?"

"Hey! He asked- and he's alright looking- and we're both on the quidditch team."

"Still! Jack Sloper! Why?"

"Don't diss him! I thought that it was very thoughtful of him."

"Yeah, but there are so many more _men_ out there that are good looking and play quidditch."

"Like who?" Alexis looked slightly downcast.

"Well- Harry- Me- and-"

"You!" Alexis gaped. "Are you saying that you want to go out with me?" Harry laughed.

"No!" Ron exclaimed. "Never! Just- well- forget it."

"You're a prat, Ron." Harry grinned. "If Alexis cares for Jack- then I don't see why she wouldn't say yes."

"Oh, come on! It's not like he's expecting anything serious! We're sixteen- he's only fifteen. It won't last long." Alexis took another deep breath of sunflower. "It's not like I'll fall in love with him."

"So- you're just playing around-?" Harry's smile had disappeared, though he was still trying to keep it on his face. "You- you don't really care for him?"

"Well- think about it this way; he would have been heartbroken if I'd have said no, he probably wouldn't have looked at me at all during practice, and the quidditch team would have been history. This way we both win- I get to have some fun, and he gets to tell all his friends that I said yes."

"I think I get it." Ron picked up Hermione's cat food as they began walking towards the edge of the village. "Alexis can- well, they're both happy."

"Well- I dunno." Harry looked down at his feet as they walked down Main Street on their way home. "Maybe- maybe it should concern more than just- just fun."

"Harry! Get a life. You need to get out more." Alexis stuck her sunflowers in Harry's face. "Smell the victory." Harry grinned.

"Alright. But we should hurry getting back- so that we can hide Hermione's present."

**A/N:**

**To all my readers, in response to EMMAisROCKIN''s Review: I'm glad that you liked my 'fluff'. LOL. About the plot heating up; right now, I'm posting the week of September 19th, Hermione's birthday. The Hhr is going to come together over the coarse of the school year, but things are going to take some different turns in the beginning. There will however, be fluff. ( my story IS a romance) The climax of my story (I've mapped it all out on a gigantic spreadsheet) will occur distributed over the period of time between Thursday April 10th and Saturday April 19th, though Hermione and Harry get together long before that. As you can see, there is still a ways for me to go. I expect that my FF will close at approximately 450 pages; maybe more. The chapter I have just posted concludes page 140 of what it typed so far. I don't know how long it will take me to finish, but I hope that I'll be able to conclude my fan fiction before the 6th book comes out, so I'll be writing doubletime, or at least trying to. Thank you guys for being AWSOME readers, and for reviewing! ROCK ON!**


	15. 15: Surprise

Chapter 15: Surprise 

Hermione, to Harry and Ron's surprise, took Alexis's sudden boyfriend rather well. She and Alexis had apparently already talked about Jack and his acts towards Alexis at the quidditch tryouts, and Hermione seemed genuinely excited when she heard the news. The girl found the fact that Jack had given her flowers 'simply adorable' and they two giggled madly as they ran upstairs to put them in a vase.

Over the next three days things were quite uneventful. If Alexis's romantic life became more interesting, she didn't show it. Jack Sloper had become slightly terrified of her. Though they sat next to each other at meals and Jack had introduced Alexis to a few of his friends, the new couple barely ever talked. Alexis waved to Jack in the halls, but he just turned pink and grinned back. Then all his friends would laugh and tease him when they thought the others had passed.

To her three closest friends, Alexis seemed happy to just have a boyfriend, even if the relationship wasn't a very serious one. As she said, she hadn't really cared for Jack very much in the first place. When Ron and Harry asked Hermione for details, the girl just answered that Alexis said that she'd get to know Jack soon enough, and they'd become closer, but Hermione always added a 'hopefully' when she said this, as if she didn't quite think that the couple were trying hard enough to really 'get to know one another.' Apparently she frequently urged Alexis to talk to Jack, but the girl always rolled her eyes and said that she had other things to do.

During the midst of all this, Alexis, Harry, and Hermione all were told to write a very long and boring essay about what improperly sliced boomslang skin could do to the Polyjuice Potion. Hagrid had added to their load of homework by assigning a report, ending their unit on Giants, in which he said that he would not check spelling, grammar, or sentence structure, obviously because he was not capable of finding these errors. Ron took the criteria overboard when he was writing his essay, and wrote so large and horribly that Hermione confiscated it with a large amount of scolding on the side.

Ron spent the whole of Wednesday night rewriting his essay under Hermione's careful instruction. She forced him to copy it over twice more because he left ink spots on the parchment, and would not approve until he had written one and a half feet without a single grammar or spelling error. Hermione and Ron did not get to bed until much after Alexis and Harry, staying up past midnight so that Ron could finish his essay.

Harry woke early that Thursday, the morning of Hermione's birthday. Surprised, he heard Ron's voice, as well as Alexis's, coming from outside the velvet curtains that surrounded his four-poster bed.

"Ron, that's a bit overdoing it." Alexis's voice traveled through the drapes. "I don't even think that she likes horses."

"What do you mean?" Ron sounded confused. "All muggles like horses, right? They ride them, don't they?"

"Hermione told me that she's scared of horses."

"What the-" Harry groaned and rolled over in his bed, sitting up and pulling back his drapes.

"Wow, we thought you'd never get up." Alexis was sitting on Harry's nightstand, holding the miniature horntail dragon that Harry had received in 4th year. It was playfully snapping at her fingers. Ron was on the floor, holding the package containing Hermione's present. He looked like he'd been up for hours, probably having spent a small enough time sleeping to make Madame Pomfrey's hair stand on end.

"How long have you been up?" Harry asked as he took his glasses from Alexis, who had passed them to him from their usual place on the nightstand next to her.

"I just came up here about two minutes ago." Alexis swung her legs back and forth, socked toes sweeping the floor. "Ron's been up for-" she stopped and glanced at the redhead.

"Three hours," Ron finished for her. "I went down to the library already: I brought up a few books."

"I can see that." Harry looked around the floor, which was barely visible beneath a dozen or so spell books that had appeared overnight.

"He's trying to transfigure some wrapping paper for Hermione." Alexis sighed. "But Hermione's been terrified of horses since she was five years old and she fell off one of the ponies at the zoo. Ron hasn't made them look too kind either." Alexis gestured at Hermione's present, and Harry noticed for the first time that it had been covered in green paper, decorated with magical, moving pictures of horses.

"It doesn't look too-" but Harry stopped in mid sentence when one of the horses seemed to gallop up very close to him on the paper, so that all he could see was it's face. It gave a fierce growl (not very horse-like) and snapped at him with a click of its teeth, making Harry jump. Then it gave all three of them a menacing glare and galloped off across the green field pictured on the paper, trampling the miniature figure of a screaming rodeo rider that had just entered the pasture carrying a saddle.

"Oh." Harry stared at the paper, which now portrayed a rather large palomino throwing off its rider into a patch of brambles. In the background, an ambulance crew was tending to the trampled rodeo rider.

"I'm sorry, Ron, but... That's just... really awful." Alexis took the present from its holder and stared at its surface, a slightly horrified look on her face.

"I think she'd probably like it more if we wrapped it in normal parchment." Harry grinned apologetically and pulled several rolls out of his trunk.

"I guess." Ron sighed and took the gift back from Alexis and in one swipe, ripped the pictures off the box's surface, crumpling his three hours of work into a ball.

…………………………

Ten minutes later Ron and Harry were sitting on the couch in the common room, Ron clutching Hermione's newly wrapped present in his lap. Alexis had gone to retrieve Hermione from the girl's dormitory.

Ron was grinning sleepily at the box in front of him as Harry glanced at the clock. They only had half an hour until breakfast was over and the Great Hall doors were closed. He wished that Alexis could hurry up and persuade Hermione to get out of bed.

Just as theses thoughts passed through his head, Harry spotted Hermione and Alexis coming down the dormitory stairs. Alexis was covering Hermione's eyes from behind and the girl was blindly letting her fingers trail along the walls, so that she would understand where she was going.

Harry kicked Ron in the shins and he gave a yelp, his grin leaving his face.

"Wha-" But Harry silenced him when he pointed to the staircase, where Hermione and Alexis had just reached the flat ground of the common room. Ron's grin returned.

"Why are you doing this?" Hermione's hands were trying to pull away Alexis's fingers so that she could see. Both girls were giggling madly.

"Just a little bit more." Alexis said, maneuvering Hermione to a space about twenty feet from Ron and Harry, who had gotten to their feet.

Alexis then moved one hand from Hermione's face, shifting the other so that it covered both eyes. With her free hand she signaled counting.

"One-" she mouthed. "Two. Three!"

"Surprise!" Ron, Harry and Alexis shouted, just as Alexis removed her hand from Hermione's face. Ron posed, pointing at Hermione's gift, which lay on the couch behind the two boys.

"Oh, you didn't have to; you know I didn't expect anything." Hermione's face shone with pleasure as she hugged Alexis, and then moved on to Harry.

"Thanks Harry." She held him tight. "This really means a lot to me." Then she let go and hugged Ron, who had moved closer and was waiting for his turn.

"And you, Ron." Hermione tried to pull away but Ron wouldn't let her, oblivious that she was trying to get away.

"Happy Birthday Hermione," Ron said into the girl's hair, his face pure bliss. "The big seventeen-"

"Thanks Ron." Hermione tried to pull away once more, but Ron held tight.

"Umm..." Hermione didn't seem to know what to do with her arms.

"I think that's enough now." Alexis gave a large, fake grin and crossed her arms. "You want her to live 'til she's eighteen, now don't you Ron?"

"Oh… yeah..." Ron released Hermione and she took several steps backward, looking slightly confused, but happy.

Harry covered up the moment by grabbing Hermione's present off the couch.

"Here." He grinned and pushed it at her. "Open it."

Hermione smiled. She looked near tears herself, though they were of laughter and happiness.

"You know that you didn't have to." She said, taking a seat on the couch with the present in her lap. The box was a little over five feet in length, and Hermione seemed surprised by the size, though she did not mention it. Harry and Alexis sat on one side of the girl, Harry next to Hermione, while Ron settled himself on the other.

"It's from all of us," Harry said as she pulled off the ribbon and began to take off the tape.

"Oh no!" Hermione looked saddened.

"What?" The other three said in unison.

"Look!" Hermione showed them a miniscule rip in Harry's parchment wrapping paper. "I was going to put it aside, so that we could reuse it." She sighed.

"Well," Ron patted Hermione on the shoulder sarcastically, grinning at her dismay. "There's no use doing that anymore, is there?" With those words he ripped the parchment from Hermione's present in cat-like fashion, leaving it in shreds. The paper fell away to reveal a beautifully decorated cardboard box, the words "Nimbus Broomstick Equipment" framed in gold swirls along the center of the top cover.

"Oh wow-" Hermione's breath was taken away when she saw the broomstick box, and all the others could do was grin as her hands swept the surface, tracing each golden letter with her fingers.

"I don't know what to say-" Hermione looked around at the others with large eyes.

"Just open it." Ron was almost bouncing up and down in his seat, anticipation building up as Hermione fingered the box.

It had been Harry's idea to buy Hermione a broom, since had asked him to take her for another flying lesson after the first. Harry had been very impressed when she asked him to take her flying the same day that she had almost died. Even though that flying lesson hadn't been as successful as he'd hoped, the fact that Hermione asked to go again made Harry feel like she really did want to become better at the sport.

Harry watched as Hermione pulled off the cover of the box, and stared at the sparkling Nimbus 750. Though not the latest model, it was what Harry, Ron and Alexis had decided would suit Hermione best, also deciding that she would probably not accept a top of the line broom. It was also far beyond their reach to purchase her a Firebolt, for they had nowhere near enough money to do that.

"It's beautiful." Hermione was really crying now. She took the broom from the velvet lining that surrounded it inside the box, touching every part of varnished wood that she could get to. After several seconds of silence she jumped up and hugged everyone, coming to Harry last and burying her face in his shoulder.

"It was your idea, wasn't it?" She whispered into his ear.

"I liked the way you wanted to fly again.. after the accident," was all Harry said. He smiled and buried his face in her hair, breathing in deeply. Her wavy brown locks smelled faintly of some sort of tropical mango. Harry smiled. It felt good to hug her.

"Thanks." Hermione mouthed as she pulled away. After this the four of them stood grinning at each other for several moments, not knowing what to say. Hermione stared at her new broom for a few more moments, then burst with 'thank you's again, smiling like she'd never had a birthday before.

"Let's go down to breakfast and grab something to eat before the elves clean up all the food, now shall we?" Ron said after the girl finished her third round of hugs and finally placed her present on the coffee table. He took Hermione by the arm, steering her towards the portrait hole. "We can leave the broomstick here, no one would have the guts to take it." At this Hermione laughed, grabbed Harry by the arm, and then all four of them formed a chain, Alexis on one end and Harry on the other, joking merrily all the way down to the Great Hall.

………………………………

"How do you manage to get it perfect every single time?" Ron said during their last class of the day, Transfiguration, jabbing viciously at the pot of daisies that he was supposed to be turning into a cat. "All that these little," Ron paused to reconsider his words, "weeds" he continued, "are doing for me is turning brown!"

Hermione smiled to herself and pointed her wand at a sleek, Siamese cat that she had just brought to life. With a light popping sound, the animal vanished and was replaced with its origin, a miniature, ten-inch, cherry tree in a pot.

"It's very simple. You aren't pointing right." Hermione picked up her 'victim' and returned to the front of the room, where Professor McGonnagal had placed a large assortment of houseplants for the 6th years to transform.

"Well, that doesn't help us very much," Harry complained, twirling his wand as he stared at the marigold blossoms that stood in front of him.

"She means you need to do this, look." Alexis drew a circle in mid air with her wand tip and then spoke "morphia la flora!" With a pop, her pot of basil transformed itself into- something quite similar to its original form, except- furry.

"Oops."

"Well that sure helps," Ron grumbled, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Alexis opened and shut her mouth several times, trying to think of a reply. Eventually she gave up and placed her wand back on the table.

"Well, at least- at least she did something to it," Harry sighed.

"You need to imagine what you want your animal to look like," Hermione instructed, having returned to their table with a pot of lavender. "Think of the animal."

"Yes. I know." Alexis rested her head on her fist. "God; this is dumb."

"It's very advanced magic. This is what Cedric Diggory had to do during the first task in fourth year. It's actually pretty-"

"Hermione-" Harry cut her off. He sighed as she looked as him with her browns knitted. "Just- just let it be."

"Well- I just.." she fingered the leaves of Harry's plant. "Never mind."

"Look! I got it to work!" Alexis, Harry and Hermione all turned to Ron, who had issued the exclamation. "Look! It's actually moving!"

"What the-?" Harry pushed his chair closer to Hermione's, away from Ron's, a disgusted look on his face. Alexis followed suite, so that she was as far away from Ron's 'animal' as she could manage.

"What were you trying to make?" Hermione looked disgusted.

"Can't you tell?"

"Um... No."

"It's a fish!" Ron poked at the squirming gold thing that had sprouted from his pot. "But it looks more like that Minister of Magic candidate.."

"Oh... that's obscene." Hermione put her head in her arms.

"Odd..." Ron jabbed at the 'fish' once more with his wand. "It's got little blue things all around..."

"There's an election?" Harry looked utterly confused.

"Yes, actually it's supposed to be a major turning point for England! Since I'm old enough to vote, come March, I'll be going to Hogsmeade to cast my ballot. I'm so happy that-"

"Whatever." Alexis cut off a scowling Hermione and then continued to transfigure her houseplant as Ron awed his 'fish.'

The foursome spent the rest of the day at classes, eating, studying and finally, giving Hermione's new broom a try. They eventually got a small game started, dividing up into teams.

"How about we do boys versus girls. It would be fun that way." Harry grinned. Hermione did as well, though Alexis looked unsure.

"But-" Ron glanced at Hermione and then back to Harry. "But what about-"

"Yes, let's," Hermione cut him off and flew towards Alexis. "That's brilliant Harry." Alexis weakly returned the smile that Hermione shot at her. As if reading her mind, Harry realized she was possibly disappointed about being Hermione's partner, since the girl was a beginner. Still, Harry felt that if he had let Ron ask Hermione then Ron's team would probably have lost, and then Ron would have gone and made a horrible fool out of himself in front of his crush.

Harry was knocked out of his analysis when Ron sighed and directed his broomstick towards Harry. The girls huddled in the distance to discuss their moves.

"Why'd you do that?" He knitted his eyebrows at Harry. "You know that- well, I guess I would have lost if Hermione and I were together, wouldn't I? But you know that I-" Ron ran his had through his already windswept hair. He continued in a hushed whisper. "Well, you know I fancy her."

Harry pretended to be interested in a scratch along the varnish of his Firebolt. "Well," he said, his mind working fast for an excuse, "this way Hermione will be impressed, if we cream them, that is, but if Alexis creams us.. Well, then she'll have an opportunity to... I dunno, flirt and tease you while you complement her on her new and improved skills." He let his breath out slowly and looked into Ron's eyes, hoping that his friend would believe him. The older boy waited a few seconds before answering, considering Harry's proposal.

"Yeah, mate," said redhead, grinning after his moment of thought. "You've actually got some brains in that head of yours."

Harry smiled in relief. Ron clapped him on the shoulder.

"Well, let's get this game going, what do you say Potter? We're going to put on the best show these girls have ever seen!"

Alexis and Hermione ended up winning the quidditch game, though only very narrowly. Hermione's horrible keeping talents were a perfect match for Harry's terrible aim, so the boy only managed to score eight goals out of the sixty or so times he took aim. Ron however, was able to prevent most of Alexis's expertly thought out shots, though there were about ten or so that he failed to stop before the quaffle rocketed through the scoring hoops.

Harry once again, marveled at Alexis's extraordinary firing power, and commented on it when they had made their way back to the castle. She smiled her thanks and then focused her attention back on Ron, and trying to explain something from Charms, then getting confused herself and giving up, letting Hermione finish the conversation that she had started.

"We still need to do that Muggle Defense Essay," Harry said to Alexis as they trailed behind the other two. "The one where we say what we already know about the whole 'karate' thing. It's due tomorrow."

The girl grinned. "I've already finished it."

"You've finished it! When?" Harry was surprised. He and Ron had left it to the last minute. He had guessed that Alexis would too.

"Well, it's my best subject I guess, isn't it? I did it in Divination, which I have on Tuesdays and Thursdays while you and the others-" she gestured at Ron and Hermione walking in front of them, "take Care of Magical Creatures. It's just over four feet."

Harry gaped at her.

''I know. But I was really bored out of my mind, and I have been taking it, well, was taking it for the past three years." She laughed and Hermione turned around, walking backwards so that she could face them.

"What?" Ron pivoted on one foot and began walking backwards as well.

"Apparently Harry hasn't done his Defense essay yet, even though it's due tomorrow." Alexis grinned broadly but Hermione looked slightly unpleased.

"Harry! You should have finished that ages ago! Mine's been done for a week."

Harry smiled sheepishly at this.

Ron stuck his hands in his pockets, looking guilty. "I haven't started mine either," he admitted shame-facedly causing Hermione's frown to deepen. "We can do it tonight, can't we Harry?"

"We have Astronomy tonight, you gits!" Hermione said, still frowning. "You're going to be rushed and it won't be anywhere near your best effort. You won't be able to write half the amount of what a good essay should be!"

The boys looked slightly ashamed, but Harry broke the silence in due time.

"I don't know much about Karate, and that's what the essay's supposed to tell him, right? What we already know. So I don't have to write just over four feet like Alexis did!" Harry grinned mockingly at Hermione.

"But that's the whole point!" The girl exclaimed. "I had Alexis tell me all kinds of stuff, and I researched it too!"

Harry stared at her. Ron did as well. Alexis smiled to herself.

"Can I ask why?" The redhead scratched behind his ear, stumbling on a rock, still strolling backwards.

"Because-" Hermione gave an exasperated sigh, "this essay is something that Professor Ronin will judge us on for the rest of the year. If I pretend that I know stuff, well, then... he might consider me one of his better students from the start."

Harry and Ron gaped at her, while Alexis slung her broomstick over her shoulder and tried to hold back a laugh, looking in the direction or the forbidden forest.

"Alexis!" Hermione grinned, trying to still look appalled, but failing.

"What? I can't help it can I?" Alexis laughed. "I'm good at something! I got to help you with something!" She twirled around, almost hitting Harry in the face with the end of her broom. "I'm really, really, actually good at something!"

The three others grinned to themselves as they strolled up the front steps. Alexis took the staircase two at a time and held the door open for her friends, gesturing them through with a flourishing grin and bow that reminded Harry of Lockhart.

"You know what?" Ron said as they entered the building. "I'm not going to take help from you, Alexis. Professor Ronin told us the Japanese Samurai principles were loyalty, something else, something else, and honesty. He's going to know that you cheated, Hermione!"

"I didn't cheat!" Hermione looked aghast. "I just- I just used my own resources!"

"Yeah. And in this case, that's what he'd consider cheating. You should redo the essay."

Hermione looked slightly hurt.

"I'm joking!" Ron exclaimed, rolling his eyes. "Ha ha. You were supposed to laugh."

"Right." Hermione smiled weakly and they turned back to Alexis, who was now skipping around them in circles; "I'm talented! Wohooo!"

A/N: hey IaMjO, what did you mean in your review when you said 'Harry is just…just there'?

**Hermione might have seemed a bit evil in the beginning, but think about it, how would you feel if someone came along and your two best friends, one of them being the guy you liked (Ron at that point), decided that the new person was just as, if not MORE interesting, than you were. Would you welcome that person immediately? And made sure that they could take your friends even more? Especially if within twelve hours of meeting your friends, they asked you if they (your friends) were _available?_**


	16. 16: Midnight Scream

AN: Hey guys, sorry that I haven't posted in SOOOO long. I know that the 6th book will be out in less than a month, so I'm going to give you an option. As of now, I have about 20.5 chapters written. I can post everything before the next book comes out, and tell you (I have the entire thing mapped out in quite a bit of detail) what happens during the rest of my story. This would just be a rough summary, no chapters, just what happens by days. There might be some dialogue- I have several scenes written (including the first H/Hr kiss!) that I would post similar to what they would be in the real story. I am positive that it's impossible for me to finish writing the FF before JKR's version comes out- I'm not even halfway done and I've been working on this for almost a year now. Do you want me to give you a detailed summary? Or do you want me to continue writing, promising that you will continue reading after JKR's book comes out? I DO want to finish this fan fiction, but I'm not sure that I will be able to continue without the loyal support of my readers, for you guys have gotten me this far. I know that 6th book Fan fics won't be as popular after the actual book comes out. Maybe it would be a relief for me to end the fan fic, and to just give you a detailed summary. However, I am leaving the choice to you, my readers. Please state your answers in your review. I will go with the majority vote. 

And now, a bit of fluff for your pining souls. Lol.

Chapter 16: Midnight Scream 

Ron, Alexis, Hermione and Harry drank several cups of coffee each that night, keeping them up for their midnight astronomy session.

This particular session seemed to be a very drowsy one for all four of them, and Harry felt it his job to poke Ron (who sat in front of him) in the back each time he fell asleep.

Proffessor Sinistra was an elderly teacher who still thought herself to be about thirty-five. She wore colorful robes and had crazy, dyed black corkscrew curls that bounced wildly every time she moved. Her teaching was rather extravagant, and she tried very hard to act as a peer to her students.

"So-" Professor Sinistra said peppily as the two hour lesson drew to a close. "So- I was thinking about assigning a project-" Everyone groaned. "No no no! Not that kind of project! Something fun and creative!"

Harry stared at the back of Ron's head as his friend nodded off once more. Harry didn't feel like doing something fun and creative at the moment. He felt like sleeping, just as Ron was doing. Harry poked his friend in the back once more, silently laughing when Ron almost fell out of his chair.

"Bloody Hell, Harry!" Ron hissed, then pretended to be taking notes as Professor Sinistra looked their way.

"I'm going to have you each find a photograph, a magazine article, any kind of picture- of a person or animal- anything living- that has meaning to you. In other words, something that you care about, I might even go as far as say, something that you _love_._"_ This word brought forth several snickers, but Professor Sinistra ignored them and continued. "You're going to use that photo for an astronomy project. You'll bring in the picture sometime between next class and the 31st of October, that's Halloween." _As if we don't know when Halloween is_, Harry thought as Sinistra smiled around at them, sitting on her desk at the front of the Astronomy tower.

"How are photos supposed to tie in with Astronomy!" Dean Thomas said from somewhere to Harry's right.

"Can I use my goldfish?" Another voice came from the rear of the classroom.

"Settle down, settle down." Sinistra hopped off her desk and walked down the isle. "Yes- you can use your goldfish if you want to- and I'm not going to tell you how this ties into astronomy- you'll find out during November, after your photos are due. All I want you to know is that it has to be something of value- otherwise you won't get anything out of the project." Professor Sinistra walked back up the isle and stopped once more at her desk. "This is going to be the basis of the entire term, so you better put some meaning into it. I don't want any pictures of yourselves, now, alright?" She laughed at her own joke. "Okay- class dismissed. And bring in a photo- remember!"

Harry, Hermione, Alexis and Ron left the tower together, stumbling down the steps. The other Gryffindors walked a hundred or so yards ahead of the foursome as they neared their section of the castle.

"So- what is it? We have a project? Ron said as they dragged their feet towards the common room. Hermione scowled at the redhead.

"Yeah- I didn't really catch that either." Alexis said, lighting her wand as they entered a dark corridor. Harry could just make out Dean, Seamus and the other Gryffindors turning the next corner.

"You were sleeping too!" Hermione looked appalled, but Ron and Alexis high-fived.

"No- actually- I was doodling- but it's the same thing."

Hermione scowled harder.

"We have to" Harry began sleepily, "We have to find a picture of something that-"

They boy was interrupted when Hermione gave a yelp as if running straight into a solid brick wall. She clamored at thin air, as if pulling at a curtain.

"Herms-" Alexis stared at her, just as clueless as the others. Hermione seemed to be pulled forward, feet dragging along the floor, and then she finally fell to the ground, catching herself with a slapping sound as her palms hit the slate tiles.

Harry quickly bent to help pick up the Hermione's books, but Ron and Alexis just looked blankly at the fallen girl.

"That was a wicked stunt, Hermione!" Ron finally broke the stupor, grinning. "You have to teach me that sometime!"

Hermione just stared around at the other three during the silence that followed, allowing Ron's words to echo off the walls.

"It- it wasn't a stunt. There's- there's someone there." The girl looked up at them, her face dead serious. "I- I touched them. I swear-" she quickly clamored to her feet, taking her books from Harry.

"Hello...?" Harry said questioningly to the darkness in front of them, through he glanced at Hermione, confused. The four were standing at an intersection of corridors, and no one was in sight.

"I swear- they were wearing an invisibility cloak or something- but there was someone there!"

Ron heaved a sigh at Hermione's plea for support.

"Merlin, Hermione- I thought Harry was the only one who hallucinated!"

"I wasn't hallucinating! I'm- I think that we should tell someone… a teacher."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Well… look- it probably wasn't anything important… I'm not scared of anything. You guys stay, I'm going to bed." With these words Ron walked off down the corridor, readjusting his bag. Harry and the rest watched him round the corner and move out of sight. They stood in silence until they heard the distant murmur of their friend giving the password and the slight 'clunk' as the portrait hole closed behind him.

"It was probably just Peeves, Hermione." Harry said, his voice unusually small, quiet in the chill air. He put a hand on the Hermione's shoulder, steering her down the hall and nodding for Alexis to follow.

Harry saw Alexis shoot a glance at Hermione, but didn't mention it. It had been Peeves- nothing more than a Poltegeist. Nothing more.

Harry sighed. Then, out of nowhere-

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRGHHHH!" The thick night air was shattered by a solid, hair-lifting scream from several floors bellow. Alexis echoed the shriek, almost dropping her books in surprise.

"What the-?" Harry whirled around and looked down the hallway by which they had come. He saw nothing except the swirling darkness that the weak light of his wand would not penetrate.

"Let's get inside." Hermione said as she rushed towards the portrait hole and yelled the password at the Fat Lady, who took no time to cooperate.

"Get inside children. Hurry- we don't know what it could be." Alexis immediately obliged, almost diving through the portrait hole in her frenzy to get inside, but Hermione glanced over her shoulder at Harry, who was still staring down the passageway towards the shrieks of alarm.

"Harry! Get in he-"

"Let's find out what it is!"

"No- Harry- get IN here!" Hermione grabbed him by the wrist and pulled his through the common room's entrance so that he toppled over the slight ledge in the doorframe.

"Gods- Herms." Harry sat on his heels.

Hermione didn't apologize, pulling the Fat Lady's portrait closed with all her might, causing the lamps on the walls to tinkle and flicker. As the door shut the sound outside was cut out completely, but the eerie silence that followed was almost twice as horrible.

"What _was _that?" Alexis said, the pupils of her grey-brown eyes large and luminescent in the light of the dieing fire.

The others were too shocked to respond, Harry still on the floor and Hermione in some kind of stupor, staring at the wallpaper above the fireplace.

"Let's- let's just go to bed." Hermione said softly after a few moments, helping Harry to his feet and brushing him off. "We'll- we'll find out what happened in the morning."

The other two just nodded, Harry separating himself from the girls, walking up to a chilly dormitory where all the others were already asleep.

AN: If you didn't read the AN at the top, please go back and read it now, it's extremely important and concerns the continuation of this fic.

…………………………

Two hours later Harry bolted upright when he heard the dormitory door creak open. He squinted in the darkness, trying to see who had entered.

"Hello?" He spoke into the darkness as he grabbed his glasses and jammed them onto his nose. "Neville? Is that you?" About ten feet away, Ron grunted and rolled over in his sleep.

"No, it's-" There was a thump and the voice came again. "Bloody-" it hissed. "Oh I'm sorry, you didn't hear that Harry, alright?"

"Hermione?" Harry swung his legs over the edge of his four-poster and hurriedly grabbed his wand from the bedside table. The flagstones were cool on his bare feet.

"Lumos," he whispered and held up the light to see Hermione, clad in pajamas with her hair done up in pigtails. She stood on one leg with her foot in one hand, her expression a grimace and her sheets draped over her back like a cloak, whispering along the stone floor as she bounced up and down.

"What the-?" Harry stared at her, his face somewhat horrorstruck, but still partially confused.

"I stubbed my toe." She winced and limped over towards Harry's bed, sitting down on the edge. "You shouldn't put your trunk there. Anyone could trip over it." She took off her sock and rubbed her sore foot with both hands.

Harry stared at her, trying to figure out why she had come upstairs, to Ron and his dormitory, at- he checked Ron's watch, which lay on the boy's bedside table.

"Hermione- it's half-past-four!"

"I know," she put her sock back on and turned to him.

"No, I mean-" Harry paused and used his wand to light the two candles on his nightstand. "What are you doing, here, in a boy's dormitory no less, with your bedclothes?"

"Oh! That!" Hermione sat Indian-style on Harry's bed, turning in his direction and pulling her sheets tighter over her head, creating a cocoon of warm air around her body. "I thought- Harry-" Hermione's expression of innocence changed to a plea for comfort. "I couldn't stop thinking about that scream!" She exhaled slowly, covering her face with her hands. "What if it were someone that we knew- someone coming back from astronomy? Do you think that anyone's hurt? What if it was- what if it was whoever I ran into in the hallway! And Alexis won't talk about it at all! She's just- I don't know- she says that she wasn't scared and I'm just- Harry- she wouldn't listen to me."

"So you came here?"

"Yes. I mean- I know that she was scared- she just isn't the kind of person who would admit that, and I- Harry, you can see that I'm having a complete-"

Harry reached out and held her wrist of a second, silencing Hermione. "Calm down, okay?" Their eyes locked for a mere moment and Hermione's breath caught in her throat, cutting off the stream of words she had meant to let loose.

The girl gave an involuntary shiver as Harry drew away, suddenly nervously aware of where she was, who Harry was, and all the people that were around them, fast asleep.

Hermione nodded to herself and bit her lip, looking down at her hands as Harry got up to pour himself a cup of water from the pitcher that he kept on his windowsill.

"You want some?" He gestured at Hermione and then held out Ron's cup. The girl shook her head and pulled her covers further over her head, burying deeper.

Harry took a sip and then scratched his head, not knowing what to say.

Neville snored from a bed nearby.

"So-" Harry returned to the bed, leaning against the headboard with his feet up on the mattress, legs bent and hands on his knees. "So-"

"Wait," Hermione hushed him. "Listen."

Harry tried, but he didn't hear anything. "What?"

"Someone's coming-" said Hermione. The two 6th years sat in silence, listening for a sound- a footstep- anything.

They both twitched as the door creaked open and someone stumbled in, tripping the same way Hermione had on Harry's trunk.

"God Harry- you need to move your trunk!"

"Alexis!" Hermione hissed, surprised.

"Yeah. I- I was wondering where you had gone..."

Harry and Hermione tried to hide their grins.

"You said that you weren't scared." Hermione readjusted herself on the bed so that she was sitting next to Harry, and making room for Alexis at the foot of the bed.

"I know- I wasn't." Alexis retorted, taking her space on the bed and creating a pillow for herself with her own bunched up blankets, which she carried with her as Hermione had done. She lay down on her 'pillow' and looked up at the other two. They stared back at her, still grinning.

"What!" Alexis said accusingly, but the others didn't respond, still looking at her in the same manner. "Okay, fine." Alexis said grumpily. "Fine. I was- I was a bit scared. But only after you left Herms." Harry chuckled as Alexis stuck her tongue out at them and nestled deeper into her blankets, closing her eyes as she talked.

"I mean- there isn't probably that much to worry about, you know.." Her voice trailed off.

"Yes- I guess not- It was probably just Mrs. Norris screaming.."

"Mrs. Norris screams?" Harry said, taking his blanket and readjusting it over his legs.

"You never know." Hermione smiled up at him. "Or maybe it was Pansy Parkinson... that would have been nice." Harry grinned.

"Or Malfoy. I remember Ron and I used to plot schemes to get him expelled. We used to write them all down on paper. Actually- I think that I've left them in my dresser all these years!"

"You still have them!" Hermione laughed.

"I'm pretty sure. Want me to read you some?"

"No- that's alright. Well- maybe Alexis would want to-" Hermione looked over at the other girl. "Alexis?"

"I think she's asleep." Harry said softly.

"It isn't fair, you know-" Hermione put her head on Harry's shoulder, looking over at their friend. "All she does is eat- and sleep- and she's the most physically fit girl that I've ever met! If I were like that I'd weigh about three hundred pounds!"

"And you don't?" Harry said sleepily.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, but quieted down when Ron expelled an extra loud snort from the nearby bed. "You know- I never treat you like that... I'm a nice, caring person." She tried to get more comfortable against him. He sighed and shifted so that his head was against hers.

"I know," he responded sleepily. "That's why I love you so much."

Hermione paused slightly, taking in his words. Had he really meant it in… that way? She decided not to pay attention to the statement.

"They'll just- they'll tell us who screamed in the morning- right?" Hermione yawned.

"Yeah…"

AN: I hope that you enjoyed this bit off fluff, and please review and vote. (If you have no clue what I'm talking about, read the AN at the top of this post)


	17. 17: No One Needs To Know Right Now

Hey Guys! Okay, so the vote was basically unanimous- you guys all said (except for Sam, who said if it was easier I should do the summary) that I should continue the story. DUN DHUN DUUHHHHNN! So here's the next chapter! I've been on a writing frenzy this weekend, so I've gotten another two chapters done. We're getting further into the plot of the story! Enjoy! (Sorry Laura, I forgot, this comes before 'Knut For Your Thoughts')   
Chapter 17: No One Needs to Know Right Now 

Harry woke the next morning to find his dormitory empty, Hermione and Alexis having left without a trace. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked around the room. He knew that he'd fallen asleep sitting up next to Hermione, but now he was lying down, head flat on top of his pillow. The only proof that there was of the girls' stay in the room were the two water cups, which Harry had moved; his was still halfway filled with water, standing on his nightstand.

The boy swung his legs out of bed and ran a hand through his hair as he stretched. According to Ron's watch, which the boy had left on his nightstand, it was eight o'clock. Harry had an hour until his first class, Defense Against the Dark Arts.

On his way down to breakfast Harry almost collided with Professor McGonnagal as he came around a corner. The teacher was carrying a mug of tea, which jolted at the sudden stop and sent liquid spilling onto the floor. Papers, which the teacher had evidently been carrying in the same hand as her mug, scattered in every direction, several fluttering into the puddle of tea.

"Oh goodness! Not now!" The professor bent down, supporting herself on an unstable walking stick. Harry quickly fell to his knees, feeling his face burn red as he gathered tried to help rescue the papers.

"I'm sorry Professor- I wasn't looking- I should have-"

"Dear- it's alright. Don't worry. It's as much my fault as it is yours."

Harry held out the tea-sodden papers to the professor, still feeling guilty.

"Thank you." The elderly teacher straitened herself shakily and smiled. "I need- I need to get myself one of those- what do you call them- a rucksack." She took the frenzy of parchment and nodded her good-bye, turning away from her student in the same hurry that she'd been before the collision.

"Professor?" A question from the night before erupted in his mind.

"Yes?"

"There was- a scream, last night." Suddenly the professor's eyes flickered around the hallway and refocused on him, surprised and slightly worried.

"You were out of bed? Potter-"

"No." Harry interrupted her, then quickly apologized. McGonnagal seemed slightly taken aback, but Harry still continued in a less abrupt tone.

"I was- Hermione- Hermione Granger, and Alexis Garcia- we were coming back from Astronomy and we heard someone… something."

Professor McGonnagal studied her student's face for several moments, exhaled slowly, and spoke.

"No one else was outside?"

"I don't know Professor. I think everyone else from Gryffindor was already inside the common room."

"Then there is nothing to worry about. I really must be going." She turned one last time and began walking away from Harry.

"But Professor-" Harry skipped so that he was facing her again. "Who was it- is someone hurt, because-?"

"It was a portrait," McGonnagal said somewhat sharply, catching Harry by surprise. "We have spoken with the painting, and all the information that can be gathered has been gathered. It was a mere flicker of the light and a trick of the mind. There is no proof that anything- anything out of ordinary was inside this castle."

"It was a portrait? Which-"

"You or your fellow students are not in any immediate danger, Mr. Potter. I can remind you again that the situation has been taken care of. Good day." She brushed past him once more.

"But-"

"Good day Mr. Potter." McGonnagal disappeared around the next corner, leaving Harry staring at an empty corridor. Feeling slightly defeated, he turned and resumed his trek to the Great Hall.

Professor McGonnagal didn't seem to want to tell him the whole truth. Or was it the whole truth? Harry studied the slate under his feet as he neared the Entrance Hall. Perhaps she had told him everything that was known. But- a portrait? Harry shook his head, shaking his hair out of his eyes. If it were a portrait then it wasn't whatever Hermione claimed to have run into. Portraits couldn't move across corridors. He sighed and brushed the thoughts from his mind. As long as the others didn't seem concerned with the incident, then he wouldn't mention his meeting with the Transfiguration teacher. He hadn't learned much from their conversation in the first place.

When Harry reached the Great Hall for breakfast he found Ron, Hermione and Alexis all eating together in a subdued state. Alexis' knife violently mashed butter onto a piece of toast, but Ron and Hermione didn't seem to be very hungry.

"Good Morning." Harry announced his presence, sitting beside Ron and across from Alexis, who merely glanced up at him, then went back to vandalizing her bread.

"Good Morning." Hermione murmured back at him, her fork dragging a piece of bacon to and fro, along her plate. Ron grunted his hello, not even looking up from his food.

"What time did you two leave?" Harry after he had helped himself to some porridge, the quickly explaining to Ron what he meant; "They came up-"

"I know-" Ron cut him off. "They spent the night. You could have woken me up, you know."

"I-"

"Don't fight." Hermione glanced up at them, still animating her bacon. "We've had enough of that this morning."

Harry glanced back and fourth between the three, watching as Alexis shot Hermione a look, grumpily eating her mutilated bread.

"You- uh- you never said when you left."

"The wrong time." Alexis snapped at him, catching Harry by surprise. At Harry's hurt look Hermione tried to explain.

"We left the room before anyone else- well- any other 6th years woke- so that we wouldn't cause a scene or anything- but- well, right when we were moving our stuff out the door, Jack came down the stairs." Harry raised his eyebrows at Hermione and quickly glanced at Alexis. The girl met his eyes for a second and he realized what had probably happened.

"No!" He stared at Alexis, open-mouthed.

"He took it totally the wrong way!" Alexis exclaimed, finally putting down her toast. "He- he thought that we were- you know- with you- and- God!" The girl picked up her fork and angrily pierced the bread several times until Hermione stilled her hand and made her stop the mutilation.

"They woke us all up." Ron said. "You were the only one who didn't hear it- some row- never heard better. Well, actually, when Mum found the twins smuggling their candy-"

"Ron!" Hermione glared at him and he wiped the grin from his face.

"So- so it's over?" Harry said quietly.

"Well- no one ever really specified-" Hermione tried to speak, but she was immediately interrupted by Alexis.

"Yes! It is totally over! I have never been more 'over' with someone in my entire life!"

There was silence for several seconds as the other three studied their food with great intensity. Finally Hermione spoke up and met Alexis' eyes.

"I don't think that Jack- well, you should tell him that- that you're through. If you really feel that way." She looked back down at her bacon and finally decided to put the strip in her mouth.

"Quidditch is going to be a nightmare now." Alexis said a while after Hermione had finished her bacon. "But- it's better than having to say I'm together with- with _it_." Harry made a face at the others, which Alexis thankfully did not see. Ron raised his eyebrows back at his friend. He knew that whatever happened between Alexis and Jack- it would be Harry's problem when he tried to get the two to work together on the field.

"I'm much too good for him anyhow. I can find another boyfriend." Alexis said, sipping her pumpkin juice. "I mean- he thought that I was cheating on him! For Christ's stake!" Ron grinned slightly, but Harry felt his face turning red. Hermione saw his expression and bit her lip to keep from smiling.

"Yeah- I guess you do have a good reason to dump him." Ron almost choked on his breakfast, failing to keep himself from laughing. "But really, from his point of view, if you were cheating and with Harry! What a scandal!"

Harry grinned and punched his friend in the shoulder.

"Knock it off, Weasley."

Ron looked back down at his plate, but you could still see his smile.

"Ron!" Hermione said, looking slightly sick of the conversation. "Seriously! I was right there! They couldn't have done anything!"

This time it was Alexis's turn to snort with laughter. "Well, Hermione, once you think about it, you, Harry and I would make and awesome three-some!"

"Alright, that's enough!" Harry felt his hand move to Hermione's shoulder as he noticed the girl's horrified expression. He wasn't sure if she was going to laugh or cry.

After several moments the group was able to move away from their previous topic and the conversation became much more relaxed. The foursome then continued to their nine o'clock defense class, the foursome uncomfortably passing Jack and some other boys in the hallway. Alexis' boyfriend- well, one could say 'Alexis's ex-boyfriend'- looked completely trodden on when the girl did not look at him, and he tried his very best to get her attention.

"Alexis- wait! Let's talk about it." But he didn't get to talk to anything other than a cold shoulder. Alexis walked on, chin high as she herded her friends away from the fifth year. Harry felt slightly sorry for the younger boy, though he had brought Harry and Ron into the argument with his comment about Alexis being in their room. He shot his teammate a glance that he hoped was of sympathy; then followed Alexis into the Defense classroom.

"He is such a retard." Alexis snorted as they got themselves settled. She looked expectantly at the others, waiting for them to agree with her. She looked pleased when Hermione, though the girl didn't seem to mean it entirely, said,

"You know, I always thought he was too young for you anyway."

"He hangs around with Zacharias Smith, you know? That wart in Ravenclaw." Ron added absentmindedly.

"Ron!"

"What!"

"Lavender- she's right over there! She's going out with Zach, you know?"

"Well, then she's a wart too."

"Let's change the subject." Hermione glared at Ron.

"Lavender isn't a wart!" Alexis exclaimed passionately. "She's one of the coolest girls in school! I've been talking to them lately, and she really likes Zach; he can't be that bad, can he?"

"She's right over there!" And with those words, the conversation was silenced.

In that class, after handing in their assigned essays, they worked on meditating and concentration. Neither Harry nor Ron seemed to get the gist of either. The class was taking a dangerous lean towards Divination, and the two boys couldn't help raising their eyebrows at each other. Hermione however, pushed any mention of divination aside, trying her best to excel in the new subject of Karate, just as Alexis was doing.

………………………

Over the next month the portrait's scream was only mentioned once, and when Harry tried to insert his meeting with McGonnagal, Alexis pushed it aside, moving on to the next topic of conversation.

Alexis received a bouquet of flowers (sunflowers again) and chocolates from Jack, which immediately jolted the two back into 'couple' mode. Alexis denied ever being mad at the younger boy and whenever their fight would come up in a conversation, Alexis would once again push the event away, as she did with many other conversation topics. After the couple's first row, Jack somehow decided that it was his duty to supply Alexis with all the candies and flowers that Hogsmeade shops could supply. Jack had the sweet personality of carrying her presents with him and popping up next to his girlfriend in the hallway. He'd give her a quick kiss on the cheek and then disappear, leaving all the girls to comment on how 'lucky' Alexis was to have someone bring her so many gifts. Through it could have been considered an act of bribery, and it happened almost once or twice a week, Alexis still acted surprised every time Jack handed her a present, and blushed over it whenever someone mentioned his romantic sense.

September 30th, almost two weeks after the two had exchanged words outside the 6th years' dormitory, was one of these gift-giving days.

Hermione and Alexis were walking down the lawn to Herbology, discussing the action-packed potions lesson from the period before. All the students in Snape's N.E.W.T. class had finished their Polyjuice potions the previous class and had taken the concoctions during the two-hour class that day. They spent the lesson studying the effects that the potion had on thinking, speech and other functions. By the end of the lesson each student had taken notes on the disadvantages and advantages of a Polyjuice transformation and were given an assignment for an essay on their experience, due the next week.

When the two girls first noticed Jack approaching them they were discussing the difficulty in not being able to control the amount of time that the Polyjuice potion would last.

"It would be much better if you could set a number of hours or days while you were putting the potion together," Hermione said as she and Alexis passed under a group of trees. "Or if you could take something to change back into yourself."

"Yeah." Alexis said, swatting at the leaves of the trees overhead. "If- like the first thing you said- if someone, like, jinxed your potion that you just wanted to use for an hour and fixed it to ten years, then you'd be in big trouble without the antidote."

The two laughed, and Hermione pointed towards three figures coming up the green slope towards them. "Look who's coming!" She smiled teasingly and Alexis elbowed her in the ribs, turning slightly red.

"Hi!" Alexis waved, grinning as Jack, Andrew and to their dismay, Zacharias Smith, stopped to talk to them.

"How's your day been?" Alexis gave Jack a one armed hug, smiling up at him.

"Alright." He grinned back. "We just came from Herbology; Professor Sprout really loves to pile on the homework early for O.W.Ls."

"Who doesn't?" Alexis joked. "Even in New York the teachers drove us crazy with work."

"My mother, for her second marriage," began Andrew, "wanted to go to New York for honeymoon, but their flight got canceled because of a snowstorm in the US and they just took a ferry to France instead."

"I'd much rather go to France than New York!" Alexis laughed, as did Hermione.

"I've been to France so many times," Hermione said.

"Yes, France is wonderful, it's a pity that the flight was canceled though."

"Well- we'd better go- we don't want to be late." Alexis smiled and stood on her tiptoes to kiss Jack on his cheek. As they were walking down the slope he called out her name.

"Alexis!"

"Yeah?" She turned back up the hill and walked backwards, grinning. Jack smiled and reached into his bag, pulling out a red carnation and skipping down the lawn until he reached the two girls, when he gently tucked the flower into his girlfriend's hair.

"Perfect," he said, kissing her softly and then turning to jog back up the hill to where his friends waited for him, both grinning madly.

Alexis turned, blushing as Hermione smiled. The girl plucked the carnation from her hair and smelled it, her face exquisite bliss.

"So you're over Ron now?" Hermione grinned as they continued their walk towards the greenhouses. "You've made up your mind?"

"Hermione!" Alexis put the flower back in her hair. "I have a boyfriend, right? How about you?"

"Well," it was Hermione's turn to go pink. "We'll see; Harry's been very- I don't know- Harry's been very nice lately."

"Oooooo!" Alexis jumped up and down, almost knocking her flower from her hair. "I knew it! I totally said that I thought you and Harry were perfect! Oh, I am the best matchmaker ever!" She hugged Hermione with one arm as she fixed her carnation with the free hand. "Oh it's so great; we're both over Ron. We've both chosen other guys and we're both going to-"

"Hold your horses!" Hermione laughed. "Nothing's official yet; I haven't made up my mind." She paused for a moment, playfully kicking at the grass, then added; "And don't you dare tell anyone; especially him, alright?"

Alexis grimaced. "But I love setting people up!" She put on a pout and fluttered her eyelashes at Hermione. When the older girl kept her face firm; she took off her expression and refocused her eyes on the path ahead. "Fine. If it has to be that way, I'll abide your wishes." She swung her bag and skipped the last few steps to Greenhouse 6. "But you have to tell me when you want my help. I love talking to guys about stuff like that."

Hermione grinned at her friend. "I accept your offer."

**AN: If this were a movie: I would put "No One Needs To Know" on the soundtrack- (BTW- I've developed a soundtrack CD for my FF, and I'm going to be posting the lyrics of the songs as they come up in the story.**

**Am I dreamin' or stupid?**

**I think I've been hit by Cupid**

**But no one needs to know right now **

**I met a tall, dark and handsome man**

**And I've been busy makin' big plans**

**But no one needs to know right now **

**I got my heart set, my feet wet**

**And he don't even know it yet**

**But no one needs to know right now **

**I'll tell him someday some way somehow**

**But I'm gonna keep it a secret for now **

**I want bells to ring, a choir to sing**

**The white dress the guests the cake the car the whole darn thing**

**But no one needs to know right now **

**I'll tell him someday some way somehow**

**But I'm gonna keep it a secret for now **

**We'll have a little girl a little boy**

**A little Benji we call Leroy**

**But no one needs to know right now **

**And I'm not lonely anymore at night**

**And he don't know only only he can make it right **

**And I'm not lonely anymore at night**

**And he don't know only only he can make it right **

**I'm not dreamin' or stupid**

**But boy have I been hit by Cupid**

**But no one needs to know right now **

**No one needs to know right now... **


	18. 18: A Knut For Your Thoughts

A/N- Hi everyone! Hope that you have an awesome 4th of July (for those who celebrate) and enjoy this chapter- the plot unfolds! MWAHAHAHAHAHAahahahaha! (yeah, anyway, R&R)   
Chapter 18: A Knut for Your Thoughts 

The fact that Ron was now out of the picture- probably- in both the secret lives of Hermione and Alexis, however, does not have huge importance at this part of the story. The thing that the reader needs to refocus on at this point is the scream and why there was a scream. Though the first event was soon forgotten in the time period between September 19th and October 27th, that didn't matter, for the night's event was to repeat, and this time, Harry, Hermione and Alexis were not the only ones to hear.

Harry was enjoying dinner in the Great Hall with his friends the evening of Sunday the 27th of October. Halloween was approaching just around the corner. All the 6th year Gryffindors had finished their homework the day before and the fact resulted in extra energy and happiness for all. Ron was once again eating his favorite food, mashed potatoes, while Alexis and Hermione tried to interest Harry in something red with a lot of legs, something that he was very reluctant to try.

"I wouldn't eat that- that crustation if I were about to die of starvation," Harry said, leaning away from Alexis, who was trying to tempt him with lobster by mimicking an airplane.

"Oh come on, Harry." Hermione said, looking somewhat disappointed. "It's really good. Plus, they don't usually serve it!"

"I wonder why," Harry raised his eyebrows as he once again dodged to the side of Alexis' teasing fork. "The things still have eyes; the house-elves are probably going to have nightmares."

"Harry, you have no taste in good food." Alexis said, finally giving up and putting the lobster in her own mouth. "You won't get anywhere in life if you don't-" Just then something white and slightly transparent came hurtling through the solid wood of the Great Hall doors, shrieking as it went. Immediately recognizing the ghost, the Grey Lady of the South tower, the whole student body fell silent as they listened to her words.

"It is happening again!" She shrieked at the top of her lungs, zooming up the isle towards to the Staff Table. "It is happening again! The portraits! Someone is in the castle!"

The ghostly lady stopped in the center of the dining hall, and floating three or four inches off the ground, she slowly rotated so that she scanned the face of each and every student. They were all deadly silent, as were the teachers.

"This is the end; they will kill us all. They will-"

But Dumbledore cut her off.

"Everyone stay where you are!" His voice boomed across the Great Hall. "Minerva, watch over the students. Severus! Hagrid! Follow me! Others to your stations!"

With these words the teachers, all except for McGonnagal, flooded from the Great Hall, which by then had turned from stunned silence to pandemonium.

"Again?" Seamus Finigan yelled above the din. "What did she mean by 'Again?'"

"Is this like what happened with Sirius Black?" The comment sent a wave of whispers throughout the entire hall.

"I want to go home!" Harry heard someone yell, probably a first year.

"What was she talking about?" Hermione looked slightly panicked, though Alexis and Ron bore expressions of excitement.

"The portraits! The scream." Harry said, thinking as he glanced around the group of four. Jack came racing up to them to stand beside Alexis, asking if she was allright.

"I'm fine, Jack." Alexis pushed off his hug, making him don a slightly surprised expression as his girlfriend searched the room, grinning in excitement and hopping up and down as she tried to see outside the Great Hall doors, which had been left open. Just at that moment the Head Boy and Girl pushed them shut simultaneously, obviously having been ordered to by Professor McGonagall.

"The scream?" Hermione grabbed Harry's wrist amid the panic. "How do you know!"

"I talked to McGonagall- I- let's go." He dodged through the melee of students, trying to get to their head of house. Hermione followed him, still clinging to his wrist.

"Harry-" She knocked into someone and quickly apologized. "Harry- when did you-"

"Silence!" Before Harry and Hermione could get to her, McGonagall raised her voice, quieting the students in the Great Hall. "Stop this." She looked slightly winded, but her voice was still stern. "Look at yourselves; running around; tripping over one-another. I want each of you to take the nearest seat and put your heads down. Not a word, from any of you. There is nothing to panic about."

She said this with such a regal tone that each and every student slowly obeyed her command. Harry exchanged a glance with Hermione, who was still holding his hand.

"What now?" He mouthed at her. Wordlessly she pulled him towards the end of the Ravenclaw table and they sat down across from each other, next to a group of second years. Hermione still looked anxious when McGonagall spoke again;

"Heads down," she commanded.

The second years next to Harry and Hermione quickly obliged and the two sixth years followed their example, putting their heads down against the cool wood of the banquet tables, which McGonagall had cleared of all dinner remains.

The whole hall was silent and all one could hear were the soft footsteps of the Head Girl and Boy, as well as the deputy headmistress. The hall doors creaked open and shut several times and teachers exchanged whispers, words which none of the students could interpret. Harry could hear Hermione breathing across from him, as well as his other neighbor, a small, blonde boy, fidgeting in his seat. Once, he quickly glanced up to try and see where Ron and Alexis were sitting, but he ended his search when the Head Boy shot him a stern glance.

It seemed like hours until someone lightly tapped his shoulder and he was able to look up. Dumbledore stood, beckoning for Harry to follow him.

"Why?" Harry whispered, but the Headmaster pressed a finger to his lips and began walking away from Harry's table. The boy quickly got to his feet and met Hermione's eyes, for the girl had picked up her head and was looking at him, her face slightly worried and confused. The fidgeting boy had stopped his nervous habits to peek at Harry from under his arm as well.

"Harry?" Hermione reached out and touched his fingers, which trailed along the table as he began to walk away.

"I don't know." He mouthed over his shoulder as he followed Dumbledore. "I'll be back."

Harry turned around as Hermione put her head back down on the table, but he could still feel numerous eyes on his back as he left the Great Hall. He heard McGonagall shush several students as the Head Boy closed the double doors behind Harry.

"Professor, I don't-" Harry said to Dumbledore as they met outside the Great Hall.

"I know Harry- you want to know why you're here." The Headmaster paused as they walked, passing a scurrying Professor Flitwick. Dumbledore fiddled with a string on his blue robes as Harry watched him, waiting expectantly.

"Minerva- Professor McGonagall has informed me that you heard the last scream?" Harry nodded, still waiting. "And she told you that we did not know anything about who was in the castle- the person seen by the portrait-?"

"She never told me that there was anyone in the castle." Harry felt his heart skip a beat as he and Dumbledore walked further through the castle, in a direction which Harry knew lead do Dumbledore's office.

"Well, you've heard it now." The Headmaster sighed and looked ahead.

"Hermione- she ran into something on the way back from astronomy." Harry said quietly, catching Dumbledore's attention. "She- she claimed that it- he- she- was human. We convinced her that it was probably just Peeves. I should have mentioned it to someone- I-"

"It makes no difference now."

Harry grew silent as they rounded a corner and came upon the goblin at the entrance to Dumbledore's office; or where the goblin used to be. Now there was just a crumbled mess of stone. Harry let himself draw a breath faster than usual, stopping in his tracks.

"The- the-"

"Yes, Harry." Dumbledore put a hand on the boy's shoulder, steering him through the hole in the wall. "We shall all mourn his death." Harry glanced over his shoulder to see the head of the goblin, halfway down the other corridor, broken into several pieces.

They stepped onto the familiar revolving staircase, letting it move them upward. Harry still looked back at the broken wreckage of the goblin.

"The portraits- they confirmed who broke into the castle today- the second time." Dumbledore said as they rose higher. Harry turned and looked up at the ancient face. "They confirmed the face of Belatrix Lestrange."

Harry didn't say anything. He let the words seep into his head, echoing off his neurons, and sending a flood of feelings through his body.

"She wanted-?" Harry paused as they came to the door of Dumbledore's office.

"Yes- she _was _looking for something, Harry." Dumbledore turned the doorknob and slowly revealed the wreckage of his office to Harry. The whole scene flowed over the boy's mind calmly, and Harry stood, emotionless, surveying the once grand room.

Papers were strewn across the floor; drawers had been pulled out of the large desk and dumped onto its surface. Every painting had been either shifted or flung from the wall entirely; someone had obviously been looking for a safe. The windows were all wide open, as were the doors leading to Dumbledore's bedroom and the small bathroom to the left. Books had been ripped from their shelves. Wallpaper had been torn from the stone chamber walls and the carpet had been pulled off to one side of the room. The large cupboard behind Dumbledore's desk had been flung open. One of the shelves had fallen crooked and its contents had been removed and scattered over the floor, leaving dark, polished wood and nothing more.

Harry turned towards the Headmaster, who was surveying the room with an extreme sadness in his eyes.

"Did she- did she find what she wanted?" Harry was still trying to figure out why Belatrix had come into Dumbledore's office.

"Yes," the Headmaster turned to his pupil, his face grave. "She found what she wanted." He slowly walked over the broken furniture and objects to the cupboard and as Harry watched, he stooped to pick up a small slip of parchment from the bottom shelf.

"I don't think that there's an easier way to tell you." Dumbledore approached Harry and handed him the slip of paper and the boy accepted it, reading silently.

_A Knut for your thoughts._

A single, bronze knut was taped to the parchment.

As the entire meaning of the scene hit Harry, full force, he turned to sit on the chair next to the door.

A knut. A knut for your thoughts. For _his _thoughts. The note was to Dumbledore-- about the pensive. The pensive was where Dumbledore stored his memories, one of them being an exact recollection of the _prophecy_. The pensive was gone, and Voldemort would know the phrophecy- their phrophecy- the one about Harry and the Dark Lord. As soon as Belatrix returned to him- then Voldemort would know that he had to kill Harry- so… Voldemort probably already knew.

………………………

Harry walked through the corridor half an hour later, hands in his pockets as he stared at the flagstones slowly passing beneath his feet. Dumbledore had explained what there had been to explain. The portraits, both times, had seen something move in the shadows. Belatrix had apparently destroyed the goblin at the entrance to Dumbledore's office and then upturned the Headmaster's private chambers in search of something that would reveal the prophecy. Having found what she had come for, she escaped through a window just as the portraits in the office were able to alert the Grey Lady and have her send message to the Great Hall. Harry had questioned the Headmaster if she would indeed take the pensive to Voldemort. The man had confirmed that it was the likely thing for her to do for her master. After their talk and several reassuring words from Dumbledore, as well as an order to stay inside the castle at all times and report to his dormitory immediately, Harry had been sent on his way.

Harry had kept himself under control this entire time and he himself had earlier questioned the fact that he was so calm. Maybe it was shock. The whole thing had come so suddenly. Though he had suspected something as soon as Dumbledore had come to retrieve him from the Great Hall, Harry had never acted surprised. He had felt as if he'd already lived through the events before, as if he was in a dream. But now, walking towards the Great Hall, the sounds of students returning to their dormitories becoming more and more prominent over his own footsteps, Harry realized that every dream would come to an end, and there was always a time when one had to wake up and face reality. Voldemort would want Harry dead before he finished his studies and the hours were ticking by.

………………………………………

Hermione was slightly worried when Harry did not return before McGonagall dismissed them all to go to their houses. She lingered in the Great Hall, pretending to be looking for a quill that she had lost during the panic. The girl had sent Ron and Alexis on without her, saying that the quill was very special and she just couldn't accept the fact that she'd lost it.

"Any luck, Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall smiled weakly, picking up a fork that had been dropped during the scramble.

"No, Professor." Hermione said.

"Well, I'm about to retire for the night. If you want to keep looking I can give you the keys so that you can lock up."

"That's alright." Hermione shifted her cloak, as well as Harry's own, from one arm to the other. All four of the friends had taken their cloaks to dinner, having just come in from a walk before eating. "I think that I'll just go to bed as well," Hermione sighed. "I probably just misplaced the quill anyhow."

Hermione followed the professor out of the Great Hall and waited as she locked up. They walked quietly together, the corridors deserted, until they reached the marble staircase, where their paths would part.

"Goodnight Miss Granger," said Professor McGonagall. "And talk to Mr. Potter. You're good with kind words and I assure you that it would do him good if you gave him some." With this she entered her office and closed the door behind her, leaving Hermione to begin her accent of the staircase as she tried to understand what the teacher had said.

When she had reached about the halfway point in the stairs, Hermione heard footsteps below, and thinking that it was Professor McGonagall with something more to tell her, Hermione turned. But the person one hundred feet below was not the Transfiguration teacher, but Harry, walking slowly and somewhat painfully across the Entrance Hall. Hermione mouthed his name, but no sound would come out, so she watched in silence as he made for the stairs, then paused and turned. Hermione bit her lip as she heard Harry make an undistinguishable sound, seemingly change his mind, and walk quickly out of the castle and into the wintry outdoors.

Hermione glanced around her. No one else had seen his desperate moves. Looking down at the bundle in her arms she picked out Harry's cloak and her own. He would be cold; it was windy and almost cold enough to snow.

Hermione quickly made up her mind. Fastening her own cloak at the neck, she hurried down the stairs and through the front doors of the castle.

Hermione stood on the grassy slope above the lake, looking down at Harry on the dock. The wind, strong enough to whip around her hair, was pulling at his button-up shirt and obviously chilling him to the bone. The boy stood, hunched over, looking down at the black water of the lake, which rippled in the wind. Every once in a while he would rub his arms to try to bring the life back into them, his teeth grit in the cold night air.

Letting out her breath slowly, Hermione walked forward quietly until she herself was standing on the dock.

"Harry?" She said softly, almost nervously. At the voicing of his name, the boy turned long enough to recognize her, then stared back into the depths of the lake.

"I need space." He choked out.

Hermione didn't reply to his words. She walked forward and slipped Harry's cloak over his shoulders, letting him fasten it as she hugged him from behind.

"You looked a bit cold," she said over his shoulder.

"I need to be alone."

"Harry-" Hermione stepped to his side and stared at the lake as well, watching the ripples hit the dock and then retaliate outward. "McGonagall was worried about you." She paused and looked over at her friend. He turned his face away, quivering. "Is there something- something that happened tonight that- involved you?"

He took a shaky breath, then turned to her. He bit his lip as tears mulled in his eyes, his face scared as that of a small child.

"Harry-" Hermione's voice caught in her throat as she reached out to touch her friend's arm. He looked back out over the lake.

"Do you- do you remember the prophecy?" Harry said, his voice breaking. "At the end of last year?" Hermione stared questioningly at him.

"Yes. I remember."

"Dumbledore witnessed it; when the seer foretold-" he swallowed. "Dumbledore had the memory, and the ministry did in the glass orb. But we broke the orb."

Hermione looked out over the lake, her hand still on Harry's arm, waiting for him to continue. Harry did, though shakily.

"Belatrix Lestrange broke into Hogwarts tonight, and she's taken Dumbledore's pensive."

Hermione quivered. "She'll take it to- to him?"

"Yes."

They were in silence for several moments, looking out at the lake.

"What does that mean for you?" Hermione said softly. At first she didn't think that Harry would reply, but a minute or so later, when he did, she listened, trying just as hard as Harry to keep her face neutral.

"The one-" Harry's voice broke, but he continued to speak. _ "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches."_ He paused here, steadying himself. When he felt it fit, he continued to speak.

_"Born to those who have thrice defied him- born- born as the seventh month dies."_ Harry's voice was unusually high, and when Hermione looked up at him she saw that the pent up tears had been released, causing rivers down his face. She looked down at her toes, suddenly feeling insecure.

_"And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal,"_ Harry pushed the words from his mouth, speaking faster and faster as he continued. _"But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not- and- and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives."_

Harry choked on his words and his breath caught in this throat.

"I-" Hermione didn't quite understand. She looked at her feet, thinking, and suddenly it all began to come together in her mind. She looked up at his face.

"Hermione-" Harry croaked, sniffing as he looked sideways at her. Wordlessly she pulled him into a hard, clenching hug.

"Herms- I'm a marked man; I'm going to die." Harry said, almost crushing his friend's shoulder as his body shook. "He knows now- he'll kill me before-"

"Stop, Harry." Hermione hissed into his chest, silencing him. "Don't-" Hermione cut off her sentence as she broke down completely, expelling heaving, shuddering sobs. "You won't die- Harry. He'll die. He will—I swear, I won't let him touch you."

"That's not- you don't get it! Only I can-"

"STOP IT!"

Hermione balled up the back of his shirt and slowly pulled Harry down to the surface of the dock.

They huddled together, hiding from the wind as they mourned together, crying for something that had not yet disappeared.

After several minutes, Hermione found her voice once more. "Harry- you can kill Voldemort. You can get rid of him. The prophecy said so, and Ron and- and Alexis- and me too- we won't let him kill you. We won't let him, Harry. We won't." She clung to him as he buried his head into her knotted, windswept hair.

Long moments passed, leaving both of them chilled and shivering. Storm clouds above flashed with lightning, predicting rain as the wind tore at their clothes. Tens of minutes later, Hermione spoke again.

"Harry- we should go-" she said, shifting and sniffing away the last of her tears. "Let's go inside, Harry."

**A/N- and just as a note, please do not leave me reviews just to advertise your own fan fiction- once is alright, just to tell me that you're writing something, but I don't appreciate it when people just review to advertise. I expect that you are reading my FF b/c you want to know what happens next, not b/c you want me to come read _your _story. I actually do visit many of your profiles, and if I am interested in your stories, I read them, so it really doesn't matter if you advertise in the first place, b/c I'll probably already know about your story. Again, I do not mind one mention of your own FF, but constant comments on when YOU updated last, and what's happening in YOUR ff- well, I'll just say that they'll be deleted.**


	19. 19: Coping

Chapter 19   
Disclaimer and such- The Characters are JK's- anything you recognize is not mine, and the 6th book, officially belongs to her. There's about 30 hours until HBP, and that's the official book- this is just my version. As I truly hope it will turn out… though Jess told me this thing about a piece of… art… that JK presented to her fans.. and the 'O' looks a lot like it could be… Loony… which kills a lot of Hhr spirit that I had building up. This is my last post before the real 6th book comes out, and I hope that you will continue reading after you have read HBP, just to see how my story turns out. I will not change the course of my story to be more like HBP, and the plot will still be Hhr, no matter if there are HL and Rhr parings in JK's book. I hope that you enjoy this chapter and continue to read and review.   
Chapter 19: Coping 

The next day dawned with an unfittingly blue sky, and all it did to Harry's mood was rub last night's bad news in his face. He and Hermione had woken up and put the night behind them. The only difference between their smiles and those of Ron and Alexis were that of course, theirs were fakes.

The two friends ate breakfast while Ron, Alexis and Jack Sloper jabbered on about the excitement of last night's dinner. Well, it was mostly Ron and Alexis, with Jack adding small comments on the side, but he wasn't making it a big deal. Apparently, as Hermione had not told Harry, Professor McGonagall had told the student body that the Grey Lady had been mistaken, and nothing of concern to the students had occurred during dinner.

After a few bites of porridge and toast, Harry, Hermione and Alexis were on their way to Potions, leaving Ron and Jack behind in the Great Hall. An hour of so later, during their potions lesson, Hermione and Harry found themselves working together on a new concoction neither had ever heard of before, and no one in the 6A Potions lesson was yet to attempt pronouncing the mixture's name correctly.

Harry and Hermione worked in a somewhat strained silence, and every few minutes one of them would try to break the ice with a question, though conversation still wasn't easy.

"Aren't turnips pretty?" Hermione said after another one of these silent periods, waving the one she was peeling in front of Harry's face. She held back a sigh of relief when Harry gave her a weak grin.

"Look," the girl grabbed her quill from the table and drew a crude smile on the turnip, jabbing both her and Harry's wands into the vegetable as arms.

A snort escaped Harry and he turned towards the back of the classroom, hiding his now true grin from Professor Snape. Hermione smiled, happy that she had made Harry laugh. Jokingly, she drew buck-teeth protruding from the turnips lips, which made Harry turn red in his attempt to withhold anything that would catch Professor Snape's attention.

Taking the turnip from Hermione, he danced it across their lab table, bringing it up to the edge of the cauldron and bouncing it on an imaginary diving board.

"Weeee!" Hermione said, just as Harry pretended the turnip was diving from the board. Harry coughed involuntarily with laughter, and his face spread into a grin. He accidentally released the turnip.

"No!" Hermione shoved the vegetable away from their steaming cauldron, flinging herself over the table to do so. With a sickening splat, the ripe turnip hit the dungeon floor, covering their shoes in turnip-gunk. Luckily, the bell clanged at that exact moment, marking the time to switch classes. Still, the two students couldn't help exchanging embarrassed grins as their classmates got to their feet with raised eyebrows directed towards the turnip display.

"Potions into vials and onto your shelf, the homework is on the board!" Snape roared as the students scrambled out of their seats. "Potter and Granger, you are not setting foot outside this classroom until that floor is spotless!"

Hermione and Harry grinned at each other wordlessly, for even though Snape had seen their accident, the gloom of the night bellow was at least parcially lifted. After a moment, the Hermion broke her gaze from Harry's and said briskly; "Harry, I'll clean it up; you can put away the potion."

Harry got up from his stool rather reluctantly, proceeding to get them a glass vial from the back of the cupboard at the back of the classroom.

"I received a detailed letter from a reliable contact this morning," said someone from behind Harry, just as the boy was about to turn around.

Harry paused, fixed an annoyed expression on his face, and turned to set his eyes on the owner of the voice he detested.

"They've told me everything," Draco Malfoy added thickly. "I probably know more than you do."

"Your point?" Harry said in a false-calm voice as he briskly carried his vial back to his and Hermione's lab table. Malfoy followed him smirking, putting his foot right next to Hermione's hand as she scooped up the remains of the turnip from the floor. The girl glanced at his foot, then, slowly moved her eyes up to the Slytherin's face, looking slightly surprised and annoyed. Harry grit his teeth as he brutally wiped down the table, trying to ignore the Slytherin's act of rudeness.

"I see the mudblood is down on her knees, like she should be. Good." Malfoy looked down at the girl, who got steadily to her feet, meeting his eyes in a defiant glare.

Harry put down his rag and vial. "If you're judging by blood, then I can tell you that hers is much better than yours is."

"Quietly, Potter, quietly," Malfoy stooped to pick up a chunk of turnip, and flipping it over, he examined the face that Hermione had drawn on the vegetable's skin. "Well, well, well," he sneered at the other two. They stared back at him, their glares unfaltering.

"It seems like you've been exterminating sweet little turnips, Potter."

Harry stared back at him, but Hermione flinched and glanced at her friend.

"You've been practicing murder, now haven't you? Going to need that skill?"

"Shut your mouth, Malfoy." Harry had caught on. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes I do, my letter, remember?" He pulled several sheets of parchment out of his pocket and tapped Hermione on the nose with them. She smacked his hand away.

"Don't touch her!" Harry hissed.

"Tut tut." Malfoy leaned to one side. "I'd always thought that Trealawney was an old bat, but now I've decided to change my ways. Many people out there are hoping that she isn't quite that stupid. You dieing- might just-"

"Shut up," Harry snapped before Malfoy could finish, but Hermione cautioned him by resting her hand on his shoulder.

"You've told other people?" Her words were calm, though Harry could tell that her hand was cold and clammy, even though his robes.

"That doesn't concern me at the moment," Malfoy smirked as Harry clenched his fists. "I could tell though- if that's what you want… my dear mudblood."

Hermione removed her hand from Harry's shoulder, grabbing the turnip chunk out of Malfoy's clutches in a swift movement. "Go away; take your gruesome face somewhere else." Malfoy smiled slightly at these words. It was as if he found her comment funny.

"I don't see cleaning!" Snape's voice cut through the still air. "Another class will be here in six minutes!"

Malfoy smirked at the two Gryffindors. Turning, he voiced four words that touched Hermione's last nerve- "Long live the Lord."

Squelch.

The sound produced as Hermione pushed her exploded turnip piece into Malfoy's face was almost impossible to describe. Holding the piece to the staggering boy's nose, she smeared her wet, turnip-sodden rag over the other parts of his face, covering his forehead, cheek and ear in greenish-white mush of an applesauce consistency.

"Urghhhh!" Malfoy gave out a roar of disgust as Hermione backed away, letting the solid piece of turnip fall to the floor, along with a splatter of liquid.

"GRANGER!" Snape screamed at the top of his lungs. "Out! Out- all of you!"

Malfoy ignored the teacher's voice and lunged at Hermione, but Harry pulled the girl out of the way just in time. Malfoy lost his balance and fell flat on his face, sliding several feet on the turnip-strewn floor.

"Out!" Snape roared again, and with no further ado, Harry and Hermione grabbed their bags and sprinted from the room, Harry almost throwing their potion onto the shelf as they passed through the door.

……………………

Snape eventually caught up with Hermione during lunch, assigning her a detention for mauling Malfoy with the turnip.

"He deserves everything that he got," Hermione told Harry in Charms, their last class of the day. "It isn't fair that I have to clean out bedpans because he- well, if Snape really knew all the stuff Malfoy said, then I wouldn't be getting a detention." Hermione huffed, jabbing her wand angrily at the soup that she was preparing. She glanced at "Charm Your Own Cheese" to see if she was following the recipe adequately. "It isn't- it isn't fair."

"You want to know what's not fair!" Ron grumbled loudly. "- I miss all the action. Everything exciting happens when I'm somewhere else." Ron sulked, stirring his cauldron with his wand in a rather gruff manner. "I wish that I'd made it into the A6 class..."

"What did Draco do?" Alexis dipped her finger into her own soup, licking it. She made a face and used her wand to conjugate more salt. "I wasn't there either, you know."

"I know you weren't-" Hermione said briskly. "Not everyone pretends to be sick right before potions class."

"I wasn't pretending!"

"Yeah right." Hermione scowled.

"You haven't told me what he did-"

"It wasn't a big deal." Harry said when Ron glanced questioningly at him as well.

"I think you two are hiding something from us." Alexis added more salt to her soup. "You've been acting very- depressed, all day now."

"I've been getting that impression too," Ron agreed, still stirring the contents of his cauldron in the same way, as if something very hard were stuck to the bottom and his life depended on getting it off. Hermione and Harry were quiet for several moments, not looking at the other two and pretending they had not heard.

"So, what is it?" Alexis finally put down her wand, stopping her fountain of salt and staring intently at Hermione.

"We- We-" Hermione glanced anxiously at Harry.

"We aren't hiding anything!" Harry lied loudly, suddenly feeling very vulnerable. He and Hermione had not told anyone else about the prophecy and at the moment, he was comfortable that way.

Hermione looked down at her cauldron, biting her lip as she poured a stream of liquid into her soup. She glanced sideways at Harry, obviously displeased with his lying, but understanding nonetheless.

"Oh." The other two seemed struck by Harry's outburst, and they backed away from the conversation topic. Ron however, still had the gall to glance up at Harry with a confused expression on his face. Harry just glared back at his friend, and the redhead quickly returned his eyes to his soup, which was simmering contently.

Harry looked down at his own cauldron and realized that his soup had sat for too long at too low a temperature, leaving a thick, creamy skin over the burnt pile of vegetables at the bottom.

"I hate magical cooking," Harry said, slamming his wand down on the table and extinguishing the fire beneath his cauldron.

The four sat in silence for several moments, none of them making eye contact.

"Yeah..." Hermione pushed her cauldron set away from herself and put out her flame as well. "I'm no good at this." She buried her face in her hands, sighing loudly.

"Oh come on!" Alexis looked at Harry and Hermione with concern, but Ron's expression was just guilty. "Anything can taste good- just enough salt-" She dumped a handful into each of their cauldrons.

Hermione straitened herself and stared at Alexis. "It's supposed to be butter- not salt."

"It's all the same." Alexis said in an overly joyful voice, throwing in another handful. Hermione was looking at her cauldron as if she might cry.

"Don't make it worse-"

"And a shot of cooking wine-" Alexis conjured up a bottle and liberally poured fluid into Hermione's cauldron, but the girl shoved her hand away, getting some of the wine on the table.

"I said- stop it."

"'Mione- you guys are being so pessimistic!" Alexis sat down hard in her seat, taking a swig from the bottle of wine, then slamming it down on the table.

"For God's sake; you're underage!" Hermione screeched, and then added in a softer voice; "and I am not a pessimist!"

Alexis made a face and lifted the bottle once more, but Harry yanked it out of her hand before she could bring it to her lips.

"Stop- both of you-" He vanished the cooking wine with his wand. "Look- Hermione and I have just had a bad day- we made a mess in potions, Snape wasn't too happy, and Malfoy was a git, as usual- called Hermione 'moodblood.' Happy?"

The other three stared at various things scattered around the table, Ron still stirring his soup. After several lingering moments Alexis cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry Hermione- I didn't mean to be a- well- I was a bitch to pry." She smiled weakly, then strode around the table, embracing Hermione's shoulders in a gentle hug. At first the girl looked away, but then she slowly leaned her head against Alexis' and moved to put an arm around the shorter girl.

The rest of the class was quiet, but calm, for Ron cheered them all up with a cup each of his rather lovely beef goulash.

AN: Jessie has alerted me that she believes that some of you are starting new S.N.s just to review for my story multiple times. I must tell you that I do no longer use the number of posts on my story as a way to judge when to post, and reviewing five times for one chapter will not increase my posting rate. Thanks, and keep reading. I really enjoy your support.


	20. 20: Alexis' Plan and Sinistra's Assignme

**A/N: I'm sorry that I "haven't posted in forever." lol. I was on vacation- the West Coast!- for three weeks until August 15th or so, and right when I came back, I had field hockey tryouts. (which ended today- I find out if I made the team tonight- gahhhh!) Yeah, well, I'm sorry, but things have been really cramped, but hopefully you'll forgive me... Here's chapter twenty! Oh, and if anyone wants to join my club- Ginny is a Mary-Sue,(GIAMS for short) I'd find that great. (it's unofficial, but I'm very loyal anyway.)**   
**Chapter 20: Alexis's Plan and Sinistra's Assignment**

"You know, at my school, we always had a Halloween party." Alexis blurted out across the square library table on the 31st of October. Ron, who was sitting opposite her, raised his eyebrows. The girl shut her Transfiguration book and leaned in so that she could be closer to Harry and Ron. Hermione was off at Snape's detention and wouldn't be back for at least an hour.

"We'd have loud music, costumes, and loads of food, and- and it was the most awesome thing ever!"

"What kind of food?" Ron leaned in as well and Harry had to grin. Ron could never refuse the description of a good snack. Harry went back to his scroll of parchment, but he couldn't help overhearing.

"We had cakes and- well, just a bunch of stuff," Alexis whispered with much elaboration. Even though Harry wasn't looking, he could sense Ron beginning to drool. "And punch," Alexis continued. "There were always at least ten different kinds of punch, all different colors and flavors. One year, when I was thirteen, someone spiked the purple punch, and about half the students got drunk. We had the most hysterical time."

"They need to do something like that at Hogwarts!" Ron exclaimed, grinning madly. Madame Pince shushed the group of sixth years loudly and Ron lowered his volume a few notches. "Think about it; everyone going crazy, like- like one of those… raves."

Harry put aside his scroll, his curiosity getting the better of him. He pulled his chair closer to the table. "What did you say?"

"We want to have a Halloween Party." Alexis explained, her face just over a foot from his as they schemed.

"Halloween is- Alexis; _today_ is Halloween. It's the feast tonight!"

"You popped my bubble." Alexis said, wrinkling her nose. "It isn't like I didn't know that. We don't have to go to the feast. I bet no one wants to go to the feast."

"The feast is amazing!" Ron muttered as his eyes clouded up.

"You guys are horrible."

"It's true," Harry protested.

"But- But- a _rave!"_ Alexis urged, borrowing some of Ron's vocabulary. "Who wouldn't come?"

"The house-elves would be too busy, and- Alexis, look, who's going to come to a party if we don't have food- or music, for a matter of fact." Harry shrugged at her. "The Halloween feast is something people look forward to!"

"Urgh!" Alexis moaned, then, moments later, she began a new chain of thought. "Hey Ginny!" she hissed to the neighboring table where Ginny and her boyfriend were working. "Dean!" The two looked up.

"Wait- I need-" Alexis looked around wildly. "Oh no, I didn't bring that- Ron- paper?" Without waiting for and answer, she ripped off the bottom half of Ron's Herbology essay parchment. He stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Oh come on!" Alexis hissed as she scribbled. "You probably weren't going to get down to the twelve inch mark anyway!" She held up Ron's paper for those at the other table to see. They looked at her quizzically.

"Oh come on," she pleaded, batting long eyelashes. "It would be the first ever- and think of how much fun we'd have!"

"Okay, why not?" Dean said, just as Madame Pince shushed them again. Ginny and Dean turned away, both of them smiling, but in a rather hesitant way.

"What? Alexis, let me see; it is my paper!" Ron took the parchment fragment from his friend, reading the question it held.

'Do you guys want to start up a band? Ginny-Keyboard, Dean and Me- Guitar, Ron-Drums?'

Ron turned very pale.

"What?" Alexis said, her smile disappearing instantly. Harry snickered at Ron's expression.

The redhead shook his head wildly. Alexis finally connected.

"Dummy! We can have a _New Years Eve_ party! And we need a band if we want an actual party! There isn't another drummer in this school!"

"I- I'm horrible! We could hire someone- Fred and George are really into music- they'd know someone who would play!

"You'll do fine," Alexis smirked. "Anyway, we can't afford pay someone. Unless- well- if you got rich overnight?"

Ron went rather red.

"See?" Alexis smiled to herself, reopening her book. "Oh, we are going to have so much fun!"

"Hey, girls like bands, remember?" Harry elbowed his friend, smiling viciously.

"Quiet!" Madame Pince warned them again from the checkout desk.

Malfoy, sitting a few tables to the left, smirked in his usual manner. "Garcia on guitar?" he said loudly. "Weasley on drums? Now this will be-"

"If you don't shut those mouths this instant-" Madame Pince huffed, getting to her feet. The 5th and 6th years all stared very guiltily at their work. "If you don't be quiet-" the Librarian finally noticed their state of silence, and looking rather ruffled, she reseated herself on her chair.

From across the room, Draco Malfoy threw a crumpled piece of parchment at Alexis, and it bounced off her head. She grabbed it off the floor and raised it above her head for a throw, looking furious, but then quickly lowered her arm as Madame Pince moved to scratch the back of her neck. Glaring, she turned away from the blonde Slytherin, looking around for her bag. Not finding it, she stuffed the paper in Harry's bag, who gave her a bemused expression.

"You should always bring your own materials to study hall," Harry preached, _trying_ to sound like Hermione. "Bringing everything that you will need is important because-"

"Oh, shut up."

Madame Pince slammed down the book she was reading. "This is a QUIET study! In the LIBRARY!"

……………………

The decorations in the Great Hall were spectacular as usual, and they stunned even Alexis. Once again, Hagrid's pumpkin garden had produced dozens of glorified specimens. The larger of the pumpkins were placed along the tables and in the entrance hall, their gigantic, orange eyes flickering in the dimmed light. The smaller gourds scattered the tables, and mini pumpkins were animated to speak to students as they ate. The ceiling of the Great Hall cooperated eagerly with the occasion, and thunderclouds blew threateningly over the heads of the Hogwarts students. The occasional brown leaf was charmed to flutter over the tables, and live bats flitted their way between the great stone arches.

Harry found himself seated beside Hermione and Alexis, opposite Ron, Ginny and Dean. Smack-dab in the middle of their group was another one of Professor Flitwick's animated pumpkins, and it continually made random comments as the students made their way through the feast.

Ginny yelped when it stated rather obnoxiously, 'boo', as she was taking a sip of her drink. The pumpkin grinned at her reaction, then returned to its original, inanimate state. Ginny and Hermione had been cleaning out Harry's book bag, which was littered with the junk of the first two months of the school year; why they had decided to do it during the Halloween feast, that was something they were not able to explain.

"Look at this," Hermione stated exasperatedly, holding up a rather wrinkled sheet of parchment. "Since when have you _had _this?"

"Oh- that's the hangman game from the opening feast." Alexis explained for Harry as she shoveled turkey into her mouth. "What was it- oh! That one took you forever to guess, remember Ron?" Ron twitched but did not reply verbally. The paper stated 'I shall die by sticking myself with a pin'; it had been Ron's downfall.

"Do you _need_ this?" said Hermione sarcastically to Harry. "Is this something that you _need?_ No, those Herbology notes on lemongrass that you threw out were something that you _needed_, but not this!" She triumphantly crumpled the hangman paper into a ball and stuffed it into the trash bag, which she and Ginny had placed under the table. Alexis and Harry smirked at each other.

"About the band; what songs will we play?" said Dean to Alexis. The girl had been very detailed about her plans earlier during the meal, but there were still some things to be discussed.

"Oh... I don't know." Alexis grinned, her mouth rather full with green beans. "We can cover some stuff- we have time. But first, we have to think of something to call ourselves. Any ideas?"

"Wizard Band with the Crappy Drummer," Ron stated dully.

"Oh come on," Ginny rolled her eyes. "You'll get better, Ron."

"You can't be _that_ bad," Alexis said. "Stop putting yourself down." Harry found himself flinching. He glanced at Hermione to see her expression, but her face was hidden, once again, in his book bag. She groped through its contents, pulling out various sheets of used and unused parchment, as well as a crushed candy bar, which Alexis grabbed and began to unwrap.

"Harry!" Hermione had pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper. "Don't waste good parchment; you could still have used this." Harry recognized what she was holding.

"I didn't bunch that up; Malfoy did," said Harry. Then to Alexis: "He threw it at your head in study hall, remember? And then you put it in my bag because you'd forgotten yours."

Alexis grunted.

"Well," Hermione began to carefully unfold the paper. "It's still useable; look, it's almost a foot and a half of paper!" The girl smoothed the parchment out on the tabletop.

"No; wait," Alexis grabbed the sheet away from Hermione. "He did write something on it—'Hey Garcia..." her voice trailed off, but her lips still silently formed the words as she read.

Harry tried to read over her shoulder, but she had already finished. Alexis let out a scream of rage; "WHAT the HECK!" She re-crumpled the paper and threw it down in the isle between the Hufflepuff table and their own. "He is SUCH a _retard_!"

"What? What did he say?" Hermione retrieved the paper from the floor and read it aloud as Alexis huffed in her seat.

_"Hey Garcia,_

_I can't wait to come and throw tomatoes the first time that you perform in public. I'll notify some others as well; people who won't be too happy with your little 'New Year's Eve party'._

_-Malfoy"_

"That's- he's very rude." Ginny said as Harry took the note from Hermione and scanned it over.

"Who's he going to tell!" Alexis fumed over her dinner.

"If he tells a teacher-" Ron stopped in the middle of his sentence, just as Professor McGonagall came and stood behind Dean.

"Enjoying the feast?" she said to the six of them. Hermione and Harry had the decency to nod; the others just stared up at the deputy headmistress with rather shocked expressions. Harry saw Alexis glare icily at Malfoy, who was watching intently at the Slytherin table.

"I have been informed by a teacher that one of his students learned of an unauthorized New Year's Eve party that this group of student has been trying to organize."

"YOU _SUCK_, MALFOY!" Alexis had immediately jumped from her seat and flicked a rather rude hand signal in the Slytherin's direction. He and his cronies burst into loud guffaws, clutching their stomachs. The pumpkin on their table picked the same moment to once again state 'boo'. The Gryffindors couldn't help grinning, all except for Hermione, who looked completely horrified. McGonagall's face had flushed a deep red at Alexis's outburst, and she towered over them as the seething girl retook her seat and the others tried to hide their smiles behind cupped hands and napkins.

"Well- well- in all my years at Hogwarts-" McGonagall gasped.

"It's just a small get-together! Not the entire school!" Alexis said defensively, ignoring what she had done in front of the divination teacher. "Maybe- maybe one hundred people- two hundred tops- We're getting a band together, and it would be sooo much fun! _Please?"_

Hermione buried her head in her hands. Everyone else focused their attention on Alexis- their eyes flitting from her to McGonagall and back.

"I never- " the professor realized that all the attention from the staff table was fixed on their small group of seven people. Harry saw the headmaster's eyes twinkle slightly in a smile. She lowered her voice to barely above a whisper. "I am going to have to-" McGonagall stopped for breath. "I'm going to have to speak with the headmaster about this- this party. I will inform you on our discussion." She walked off rather shakily, leaving Alexis fuming.

"What was that about?" Lavender Brown asked Alexis, but the girl went unnoticed.

"I- I can't believe that he tattled!" Alexis exclaimed.

Dean groaned; "I think giving Malfoy the birdie blew it for us."

"Maybe it's a sign that he told." Hermione said calmly. "Really; I never thought that they would like the idea."

"Yeah- Hermione's right." Ron said, looking almost hopeful. "See- it's a sign; I'm not meant to be in a band. I can't play worth-"

"Oh, shut up." Alexis grabbed a slice of pie as the deserts appeared on the table. "Even if we can't have a party, we'll still do the band."

………………………

After dinner, Alexis insisted that Ron play his drums for her, and all the Gryffindors were forced to live with the sickening din that his practice session provided. The 6th years were to have astronomy at midnight. Some went to bed to sleep the few hours until the class, (if they were able to; for Ron continued his deafening racket) but several stayed up and read books, play board games or do homework until it was time to make their way up to the Astronomy tower. The boys all found themselves in this situation, for their dormitory was being used for Ron's drum-playing fiasco, and no one dared venture inside. Neville still managed to fall asleep, draped over one of the armchairs by the fire. His mouth hung open, and his snores could be heard across the common room from where Hermione and Harry were sitting on the wide window seat, tediously working their way through Harry's charms essay.

"Why do they even teach us magical cooking?" Harry moaned as he crossed out another sentence in this essay. "I could live on frozen muggle dinners; it would take so much less effort."

Hermione didn't reply, she took the parchment from Harry once more and reread the paragraph that they had been working on. She tickled her forehead with the feather of her quill, leaning close to the paper in the dim light. "It just doesn't make sense," she said in a final way. "We don't even know if there is a way to make a cream sauce with a flick of your wand; Professor Flitwick will know that you just made that part up. He hasn't taught us how to do it yet and you're not specifying any particular way…"

"Oh- I don't give a damn." Harry took the paper back from Hermione, glaring at it and accidentally leaving a large splotch on one corner when his quill dripped. "Maybe he'll remember my summoning charm in fourth year and give me an 'acceptable'."

"We should ask Ron about it; he'd know." Hermione leaned over and drew a large question mark over Harry's third paragraph. The boy scowled.

"How did he ever learn everything about cooking? No normal sixteen-year-old can make beef goulash perfectly."

"His mother, he told me. She used to make Ginny and him help cook when all the others were off at school; she said that she didn't want them sitting around the house all year."

Harry grinned. "Ronald Weasley, four star cook."

Hermione laughed softly. "He really does seem to like cooking, but he'd turn beet red if he heard you say that."

"It's his special talent," Harry joked.

"No, I think it _is_ one of his talents," Hermione said seriously. "Everyone's got something that they can do naturally and really enjoy. For instance, I enjoy studying.. Parvati is amazing at anything to do with hair.. Neville-"

"He can sleep through anything." Harry chuckled. "He can sleep anywhere- and in any position."

"See-" Hermione grinned. "Everyone has a talent."

"Alright, oh-so-studious one," Harry mocked. "What's _my _special talent?"

"Your talent?" She looked out the window. After a moment she answered. "Flying- you love to fly, and you've been able to do it since the first time that you tried."

Harry smiled for a second; then the expression vanished from his face. "Alexis is much better than I'll ever be."

"That isn't true!" Hermione exclaimed, her face astonished. Harry stared back at her for several moments, his eyes unblinking, willing her to tell him that what he said was true.

"Harry-" she moved closer, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "She may be a good quidditch player, but she could never replace what Gryffindor has come to see in you. And she doesn't have a brain when it comes to empathy, or compromise, or any thing that you have. Alexis is pretty- she sings- she plays quidditch- she's _American_, but she can be- she can be pretty self-worshipping and inconsiderate at times."

Harry grinned finally, breaking the tension. "You can say that again. With Jack-"

"Oh my gosh; don't get me started!" Hermione exclaimed, pretending to bang her head on Harry's shoulder. "Somehow, even though it's a bit evil of me, I hope that he gets sick of her."

Several minutes later, Alexis walked into the common room by way of the boys' dormitory staircase. Harry and Hermione, who had left their discussion of 'special talents', had moved on to other homework.

"He doesn't know how to count!" Alexis exclaimed when she saw them sitting in the window seat. "He can't even keep a steady beat! No talent whatsoever! Why didn't you guys tell me?" She plunked herself down, looking distraught. Hermione tried to portray a soothing smile, but her lips twitched as they bent upward.

"I'm sure he'll get the hang of it," Harry said. "You can teach him."

"That's the point- I can't teach worth crap!" Alexis stared down at her hands, giving Hermione time to shoot Harry a knowing glance. "Look," Alexis continued. "I'm going to go to bed for an hour before Astronomy. Ron has as well. Hermione, wake me up fifteen minutes before?"

"Alright."

With these words, Alexis left Harry and Hermione to themselves in the now peaceful quiet of the common room.

…………………………

"We're going to be late," said Hermione to Harry and Ron at ten-till-twelve that same night. "What _is_ she doing!" The girl paced back and forth, fingering an envelope that she was carrying. Harry just stared languidly at the fire.

"I just- have- to get-" Alexis came tumbling down the stairs. Her robes were draped over her shoulder and her she carried her open book bag in one hand. Alexis cursed as several of her books fell out of the bag and onto the steps. She tripped on her robes, managing just barely to catch herself on the railing. "Lavender and Parvati are coming. I just have to- do my hair." She huffed.

"Alexis!" Hermione grabbed a piece of parchment as it fluttered to the floor, having spilled from Alexis's bag with her books. "We don't have time! It's- it's eleven fifty-two! And we need seven minutes to get to the tower! I timed it in third year!"

"I'll just be a second-" she dashed back up the steps, pulling her robes on over her shoulder and leaving her book bag lying on the floor in the middle of the Common Room. A minute passed. The three others began to pick up Alexis's school supplies from where they had fallen from her bag. Then they heard footsteps; three people running down the stairs.

"Hermione says that we're going to be late?" They heard Parvati Patil's voice question.

"Yeah-" Alexis answered. "Are you sure that this looks alright?" Harry guessed that she meant her hair.

"It's fine Alexis; you're gorgeous enough without it done up."

_That was Lavender Brown's voice_, thought Harry.

"Lav- your shoe's undone."

"I know, but Hermione says that we'll be late-"

At that moment they came into view, Alexis in the lead, Parvati close behind, and Lavender, the latter two carrying their book bags and other supplies. Alexis's hair was up in a bun, and Lavender's shoe was, indeed, untied, and at the moment, right as the other two came off the staircase, she tripped on the undone lace.

Books spewed everywhere as Lavender tumbled down the last few stone steps, finally coming to a stop on the carpet, palms down.

"Lav!" Parvati immediately went to her friend's rescue, kneeling down and straitening the girl's skirt, which had flown up during her fall. Seeing Harry and Ron, there with their eyes wide open, focused on her, Lavender went bright red.

"Lav, are you alright?" Alexis dove down on the floor, helping the girl to her feet.

"Here- let me help." Harry had stepped forward. He took Lavender's bag and began collecting the books, which had flown from it during the girl's fall.

"Thanks, Harry." Lavender limped upward, leaning on Parvati for support.

"Are you alright?" Hermione, Parvati and Ron all asked at once.

"I- I think so…" Lavender picked up a book from the carpet and handed it to Harry, who placed it in her bag.

"No- look: you're bruising." Alexis was examining the girl's wrist, which held several bruises. Harry could see them clearly.

"Oh blast." Lavender looked at her wrist, then glanced at Parvati, who stared back with rather serious eyes.

"Hang on- how did you bruise that part of your wrist?" Alexis's expression had changed. She glanced from Lavender's arm to her face and back again, suspicion obvious. "Lav- you landed plam-down. What's this from? No, really, it looks like-"

Lavender winced and pulled her arm away when Alexis fingered one of the bruises. "I think that I… hit my arm on the stair."

"Lav- don't lie to me." Alexis stared at the girl, but Lavender only turned her eyes away.

"Alexis…" It seemed like Hermione had wanted to say something, but her voice trailed off.

"You know what? I think that I _am _getting a bit dizzy. I better head to the Hospital Wing." Lavender took her bag from Harry, avoiding his eyes- avoiding _all _their eyes. She left the common room and Parvati followed, but not before shooting a "it's her business, you know," at Alexis. The two girls were gone before Harry could blink.

"Why did you have to pick on her!" Hermione glared at Alexis after Lavender and Parvati had left. "She fell down the stairs, Alexis! It's very possible that-"

"I'm going to bed," Alexis interrupted, leaving Hermione to glare at her silently. "Screw Astronomy." She grabbed her things from where Hermione had placed them earlier and left the Common Room by means of the Girls' Dormitory Staircase.

……………………………

Harry, Hermione and Ron entered the Astronomy tower at five past twelve. They slipped in and sat in the back seats while Professor Sinistra's head was down, and they all breathed a sigh of relief when she called their names for attendance, not having missed them earlier. Harry watched Hermione curiously as the Professor went through the other names on the list. The girl was still holding the same envelope with which he had seen her earlier.

"Hermione, what's that?" Harry whispered, gesturing at the envelope.

"Oh, it's our homework assignment."

"Very funny." But then he saw that she had been serious. "Hermione- tell me that we didn't-"

"The picture? The one that had meaning to you?" Hermione said, her brow knotted as she looked into his eyes. "It's due today, Harry. Surely you remembered...?"

"No- I- I didn't. Not until now."

Ron snorted with laughter. "Harry, she said we'd be working on this for weeks! Even I- look- I brought a picture of my family. The one taken when we were all in Egypt, the summer before 3rd year." Ron pulled a rather crumpled, old newspaper clipping from in-between the pages of his textbook and showed it to Harry.

"I brought my family as well-" Hermione opened her envelope and presented him with a picture of her mother and father. Harry guessed, by route of the palm trees in the background, as well as the sign that said "bienvenue" ('welcome' in French), that the photo had been taken on one of the family's vacations to France. He handed the picture back to Hermione as his spirits fell.

"Look- you keep photos in your wallet, don't you?" Ron said, trying to be helpful. "You could use one of those…"

"Yeah- but- I don't think that I have any in there anymore."

"Let me see." Hermione held out her hand, and Harry couldn't refuse handing his wallet to her.

"I don't think that you'll find anything," he said.

"Well, we can't possibly let you fail the assignment..." Hermione said, her mind made up as she opened the leather folds. However, the look of hope on her face vanished when she drew a single picture from Harry's wallet. "And we really can't use that one, now can we?" her voice cracked and Ron grabbed the snapshot from her.

"This is the one that-" Ron stopped in mid sentence, ginning like mad. He showed the picture to Harry as Hermione continued to look madly through the wallet. Harry had to grin as well.

"Herms- is that the only one in there?"

"Harry, you know how much I hate that picture…" Hermione continued to look through the wallet, pulling out several notes of muggle money and the wizard coins that Harry had become used to carrying around with him. "Oh look! -No… that's just a receipt…" she slammed another wad of paper on the desk, as well as the now empty wallet.

"Is it the only thing…?" Harry took the photograph from Ron.

"Yes, Harry; it's the only picture in your wallet."

"You've got to let him use it, Hermione," Ron stated blatently. "You said yourself that we can't let him fail the assignment. Even if we don't know what it's for, it _can't_ be tremendously embarrassing."

"Look, Hermione." Harry laughed. "If you don't want me to use the picture, I won't. I don't care if I get a bad grade on one assignment; I can bring something next class."

"Fine!" said the girl abruptly, resting her head in her hands. "Use the stupid photo; just don't- show it to anyone."

Harry grinned. "Thanks, Hermione."

Ron smiled as well, tipping his chair backwards on its two hind legs; "Really, I bet the only person to see it will be Professor Sinistra."

"Ron, don't tip your chair," Hermione said curtly, but the boy only grinned.

At that moment the teacher reached their group to collect the photos. She took Ron's, as well as Hermione's, without more than a nod. When she reached Harry, however, his picture drew a genuine smile to her face. "Mr. Potter, you won't believe how happy I am to see a photo of something else than someone's parents. This is of you, is it not, Miss Granger?" Hermione turned slightly red and sank lower in her seat, nodding meekly. Harry visualized the picture; the one he had taken during quidditch tryouts, and smiled. Ron grinned just as hard as Harry, thinking of how much Hermione disliked the picture, his chair wobbling dangerously on its two hind legs.

Sinistra continued; "Yes, I always thought it would be wonderful to have someone who really cared about me paste my picture among the stars. What a beautiful sky this photo will make. The whole world will be able to admire it."

Harry could have sworn that his heart skipped a beat, and Hermione, sitting next to him, turned an even brighter red. Their reactions however, were nothing compared to the tremendous crash that echoed throughout the room when Ron, who never thought it possible, finally lost balance and fell out of his chair.


	21. 21: A Few Very Interesting Ideas

**Hey guys- Sorry that I haven't posted in forever- it's just that highschool, AND field hockey- well, we'll just say that I get a lot less sleep these days… but I WILL continue posting, so hang in there!**

**Chapter 21: A Few Very Interesting Ideas**

"She's making us host a _ball!"_ Alexis exclaimed loudly as she marched into lunch on the first of November. Ron followed in behind her, his expression blank as he took a seat. The rest of the Great Hall was almost empty, except for a few Ravenclaw first years, as well as Dean and Seamus, who were sitting by themselves at the other end of the Gryffindor table. Ron and Alexis had missed most of lunch to talk to Professor McGonnagal about the New Year's Eve party, and Alexis continued to tell Harry and Hermione about the visit as she took her seat.

"McGonnagal says that we can't have a party unless there are chaperones, everyone _dresses up_, and- and- urgh!" Alexis banged her head on the table. "She's wrecking it! Oh! _And_, we have to invite everyone- _fifth year_ and up." _Bang bang bang_ went Alexis' head on the solid oak furniture. She buried her face in her hands and let out a moan, and Harry, who was sitting across from Alexis, found this the moment to voice his opinion.

"Didn't you want to have a lot of people?" He said, causing the girl to slowly bring her head upwards, her usually perfect hair all over the place because of her 'head banging.'

"I was getting that notion too-" Hermione added. "Didn't you-"

"What I said was one hundred _people_, not- not _everyone fifth year and up_! Do you think that I want Malfoy at my party?"

"Oh." Hermione said slowly, pursing her lips.

There was silence, and the only sound was a few first years getting up to leave, glancing nervously at Alexis, who was still fuming, her hair having fallen back into its naturally 'perfect' state.

"You know what?" Alexis grabbed a roll from the basket in front of her. "I'm going to eat outside; just to think of _me_, hosting a party- where people _dress up_- and-" she shivered, gathering her things. "You know what, I'm also going to find Luna; we need three guitarists, and she'll make an excellent addition to the band. Hermione- Come with me?" Alexis got out of her chair.

"But-"

"Please Hermione?" Alexis begged, and Hermione, looking a bit annoyed, grabbed some food as well and followed her friend from the Hall.

Harry and Ron waved goodbye to the two girls, then sank into silence. The redhead just picked at his meal, something that Harry had rarely seen him do. He took a bite of his sandwich and chewed for what seemed like an eternity, avoiding Harry's eyes. Harry shifted in his seat, looking around the hall, trying to think of something to say. At the other end of the Gryffindor table Seamus sneezed loudly; he and Dean were getting ready to leave. The four of them were the only ones left in the room. Harry checked his watch. 1:40. There was still twenty minutes until their next class.

"So…" Harry tried to make conversation. Ron glanced up at him, then he went back to his sandwich.

"That was interesting. Luna- how Alexis wants her added to the band…" He forced a grin, but Ron didn't react in any way, which Harry found a tad annoying. Ron had flinched rather obviously when Alexis had mentioned the 5th year. Still, Harry tried another topic. "What's your class doing in Potions?"

"We just started the Polyjuice potion." Ron's answer was short and somewhat curt.

"Oh. Right. We did that at the beginning of term…"

Ron didn't reply, chewing on his food, staring at his plate. Harry looked over towards Dean and Seamus again. They were coming towards him and Ron.

"Hullo." Harry nodded to them as they came closer. Dean ginned in answer; Seamus emitted another loud sneeze.

"Listen Harry, it was a real relief when I heard that you were using a picture of Hermione for your star project," Dean said as they passed. Over his shoulder he added, "it was good to know that I wasn't the only one using my girlfriend's photo."

Harry stared at the fellow Gryffindor; he could sense Ron stiffening across from him.

"What?" Dean said over his shoulder. "Not used to her being referred to in that way yet? Really, no one was even sure that you two were going out, but congrats anyway." He grinned, but Harry shook his head.

"We _aren't_ going out."

"What?"

"I said; Hermione and I are just friends. She isn't my girlfriend."

Dean stopped walking, his eyebrows furrowed. "Oh."

"Who told you that… we were…" Harry's voice trailed off.

"Oh. No one. I just… assumed that… since you were using her picture… I dunno!" Dean laughed. "Never mind." Harry laughed as well and Seamus rolled his eyes.

The two others left and Harry turned back to Ron, still grinning. He was met by a pair of hard, gray eyes. Harry tried to ignore Ron's cold stare, but it was like dousing his head in icewater.

"Kind of funny, isn't it?" Harry said, though 'funny' seemed to have left with Dean and Seamus. He bit his lip and stared at his lunch.

"Very." Ron replied in the same, curt manner that he had been using before, though this time he wasn't trying to disguise his bitter mood. The boy put down the remaining half of his sandwich and got up out of his chair.

"Why are you in such a bad mood today?" Harry finally heard himself demanding, feeling a little more than slightly angry.

"Harry, you _could_ have traded pictures with me." Ron hissed, walking from the table, Harry in tow.

"Hold it, this is why you've been ignoring me since we got up this morning?"

"You _know_ that I fancy her- and you heard what Professor Sinistra said, and now what Dean thought-"

"You think that this is going to change things between Hermione and me!" Harry's face was aghast. "Ron, it's just a stupid photo! Sinistra said that it'll only be up in the sky for a few weeks, that's all the time she's rented it for-"

"I don't care how long it's up there, Harry! You'reusing _Hermione's picture!_ You're- _you're pasting her face among the stars_!_"_

"Ron, this is in no way going to change your chances with her."

"Says who?"

"So you want to trade?" Harry felt annoyed.

"NO!" Ron retorted, exasperated, and they fell silent.

"Well, you weren't making any progress, anyway," Harry retorted after a minute or so.

"It isn't like you're helping! She would probably say yes if I asked her to- to Hogsmeade or something."

"Well, then why don't you get it over with! Ask her to the next bloody Hogsmeade weekend!" Harry was loosing his nerve.

Ron shuffled his feet rather awkwardly. "I could… but…"

"Well, what do you expect? No wonder you aren't getting anywhere. Should I ask her for you?" Harry said, exasperated.

Ron stared at Harry, having frozen at these words. Harry could tell that the redhead had been on the brink of explosion. After several moments the silence was broken.

"Merlin Harry!" It came out in a flabbergasted yell.

For a second, Harry had thought that Ron would accept, but obviously, that idea was ludicrous.

"Harry- you think that I can't ask her out myself? I'm not ten years old, alright?" With this, Ron stalked off, leaving Harry in the middle of the corridor bearing an aghast expression.

……………………………

Harry found himself falling endlessly, his pajamas pulling at his limbs as he fell freely into black, endless nothingness. Or was it nothingness? Was he really moving? There was no point of reference, so he was seemingly floating in mid air, but he could feel wind tugging at his clothes. A quickly approaching ground changed Harry's mind- he _had _been falling, he realized as he silently hit a mossy, forest floor.

As his eyes adjusted to the light, Harry picked himself off the ground. He could make out trees above him. Strange- he had not felt them when he fell… In the distance he could barely make out the glimmer of a campfire. He approached quietly. The only sound he heard was that of his own heart beating… until- the thick air was sliced by a cold, high laugh that Harry found so very, sickeningly familiar.

Blood rushed in his ears, and a chilling wind whipped through his hair. Harry's forehead ached as he came face to face with him… Voldemort.

Suddenly, Harry felt like he would be sick. He gagged and jerked forward, clutching his stomach. Voldemort's red eyes gleamed above him- the villan did not see Harry.

Harry felt himself tumble uncontrollably forward, toward Voldemort's boots, but instead of colliding with the hard leather, Harry toppled through- no- _into_ the body of his nemesis.

His ears pounded with thoughts as they swirled through his mind. No- not his mind- Voldemort's mind.

"No-" Harry demanded strongly. He tried to clear out the thoughts- this was a vision. This is what Occlumency was supposed to have kept him from. But an iron fist seemed to clamp down on his mind. Harry did no longer exist. In Harry's place, there was now Voldy-Harr. The terrible dark lord of present day.

_What's this? Ah… Wormtail. Horrible piece of vermin. _

"Master, Master!" Wormtail fell to his knees at Voldy-Harr's feet, kissing the shiny leather, pulling at his master's robes.

Disgust. Floods of disgust wrenched through Voldy-Harr's body and he kicked out, colliding with Wormtail's mouth, causing the vermin to bleed.

"Leave, fool. You know better than to disturb me while I think."

Wormtail huddled by the fire, nursing a split lip.

"It is very important, Master."

More, heart-wrenching disgust. _His friends,_ thought Voldy-Harr. _His friends are his last strand of support. He knows that I know now. He can get rid of me, but without his friends- he cannot do anything. I need to destroy his every sense of home in the world. He will be weak, and he will come to me out of- out of hate. But my hate is stronger._

"Master- Master."

"I said- begone!"

"Master- good news…"

"I said- leave!"

And the air around them exploded- not something conjured by Voldy-Harr. Twelve men apparated into the clearing around the campfire.

Joy. Suddenly disgust was replaced with Joy. Earthquaking joy. "My _Family_. I knew that you would return."

Suddenly, Voldy-Harr clutched his face. _Pain. Allarm._ Harry fought free of Voldemort's mind. They were separate, finally.

The boy awoke in his dormitory, drenched in sweat and shaking from head to toe.

Harry felt weak, trembling as he sat up in bed, contemplating the events of the dream- the vision. Should he tell Ron?

Even as Harry looked at the peacefully sleeping Ron in the nearby bed, his mind transferred Ron's face into a snarl. "You're ruining my chances with Hermione," the imaginary Ron stated, and Harry looked away from his best friend. No- not Ron; he didn't want to talk to Ron. Harry's strength gave one last attempt to hold the boy propped upward, then shattered, and Harry fell back onto his pillow in a deep sleep.

**If this were a movie;** I'd put in World On Fire by Sarah McLachlan.


End file.
